Curse of A Mark
by Koomahana
Summary: Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse, reality blows up in her face. of soulmates, marks, clones, memories, lies, distraction... everything is almost too much for Mikoto to bare
1. Chapter 1

**Curse of A Mark**

Chapter 1: Remembering bits and pieces

Koomahana

 **This story is heavily influenced by 'A plea of Denial' written By 0Shadowcast**

 **Thank them if you like it!**

 **Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

 _He was running with a smile, laughter surrounded him from the other kids running beside him. Each of them as happy as the next. He spun on his foot, dodging the soft tap of a small brunet, he laughed as he quickly got out of her way and then suddenly, their game was advancing as one of them used his ability to get out the girl's reach._

" _That's not fair Kai-kun!" the girl whined, shaking a fist at the boy who now floated just out her reach, "the rest of us can't fly!"_

" _My name is Ka….!" the shouted back at her, blurred face looking down at her in annoyance, "Remember it!"_

" _I like Kai better!" the girl laughed instead, watching how the other girl, the oldest in their group, signed to her to be quiet._

" _That's not true you little—whoa!" the girls laughed as the oldest in their group shot a beam of green light at Kai, missing him but distracting him enough to lose concentration of his ability, forcing him to fall to the ground. "Mo-chan that's cheating!"_

" _You started it!" Mo giggled almost helplessly, the little green orb she summoned disappearing with a soft 'pop'_

" _Ah! I almost forgot!" the girl giggled suddenly, she jumped forward and wrapped her arms around Mo's dangling limb, "Tag! You're it!"_

" _What?!" The girl ran before Mo could touch her, "you little brat!" they all ran away laughing, he looked over his shoulder again, his smile wide as Mo chased after them yelling loudly, one fist shaking in the air. "Get back here you little brats!"_

…

He could still hear the laughter long after he woke up, eyes still closed and body still curled around his pillow. It had been a long time since he last dreamed of his past and even longer time since he last dreamed of his once friends and the games they all played, each one trying to outdo the other. He couldn't remember their names anymore, not even their faces or event their abilities but he did remember that it was that annoying little girl who had brought them all together.

Calling them ridiculous names that mostly didn't make sense to anyone but her

With a sigh he rolled onto his back and stared dully up at his sunlight washed ceiling, wondering just what he was supposed to do for the day. Crimson eyes blinked slowly, calmly pushing away pale locks of hair, showing him just how bright his room suddenly seemed, even with the faint echo from his childhood.

…

" _I'm gonna call you Tenshi from now on!"_

" _Don't you dare!"_

" _To late Tenshi-kun!"_

" _If you're so stuck on it at least call me 'Enjeru'!"_

" _No!"_

" _They mean the same thing!"_

…

 _Stupid brat,_ the thought came and went like the wind, forcing him to open his eyes and scowl at the ceiling overhead. If it was one thing he hated most in his life, it was the endless amount of sunlight that always seemed to find its way into his room, despite everything he's done to block it off. He hated it because the sun always reminded him of that stupid little girl who was as bright, blinding and as cheerful as sunlight. She always found a way to make someone smile and she always had a reason to laugh, she pulled him out of the darkness he was steadily building around himself at that point in time.

She was always smiling, no matter what people said to her

…

* * *

…

She woke up with a start, blinking stupidly at the golden washed pillow she was curled into, silently wondering just when her bed had gotten so hard. A second blink and she realized she was on her apartment floor, with a huff she picked herself up and stared out at the three other bodies that surrounded her sleepily. The clock beside her bed read 10:30, staring back at her in the same neon green as her perfectly round orbs. Her friends were still out cold from their earlier party for their one hundredth successful mission, paper cups and plates, foods and drinks, blankets almost everything in her apartment was scattered on the floor like a tornado had swept through while they slept.

" _Mo-chan! Mo-chan!" she giggled helplessly_

 _What…_ she looked over to her open window, blinking sleepily at it, _what was I dreaming about?_

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she swore she could hear someone laughing

…

* * *

…

The day was nice, a normal summer day, no clouds in sight. It was the perfect day to sit outside with sweets at hand and gossip like the middle school girls that they were. Currently, everyone was staring dumbly at the bubbly girl sitting-no-bouncing in her seat beside them, her face a glow and her eyes sparkling brightly.

"Wait… a what mark?" the red head asked, feeling as if she just missed a vital piece of information in an important case

"Oh come on Kuroko!" the black haired, bubble-girl laughed at her, black eyes sparling brighter, "You heard me! A Soulmate Mark! They say everyone in Academy City has one!"

"A… soul mate… mark?" Mikoto repeated slowly, "Are you serious?"

"Yeah! It's the latest gossip on the Academy City's Legend's Website!" Saten gushed with stars literally shinning in her black eyes, "They say that if you have a mark then the only other person who has it is the one who is the best fit for you!"

"'If'?" Mikoto repeated with a raised eyebrow, "As in, not everyone in this city has a mark?"

"Well…" Saten paused before she turned and started digging in her purse, digging around for what everyone assumed to be her cell phone. "Got it!" Saten smiled and pulled out her…

"A lap top?!" Uiharu gasped, "When did you get that? Aren't they expensive?"

"Well yeah but I didn't buy it," Saten smiled, "My mom sent it over to me from home. It's actually her old one from when I was a kid so I don't mind that much. At least I can access the internet!" Mikoto and Kuroko shared a look as Saten opened her laptop and imminently started doodling away on the keypad, searching for what she wanted. "Got it! See!" Saten turned the laptop around and showed her friends what she was talking about, Kuroko and Mikoto stared dully at the screen.

"'The mark of a soulmate'" Kuroko read aloud, voice dull and face bland

"'Only soulmate's share the same mark?'" Mikoto repeated dully, one eyebrow raised, "uh… yeah, what's the point of this conversation again?"

"I've got a soulmate mark!" Saten smiled proudly at them, "you wanna see it?"

"…dose it involve me gouging out my eyes after word?" Kuroko asked in amusement

"You wouldn't have ask that if Mikoto asked that," Saten pouted

"Ah!" Kuroko looked as if she just remembered something important, Mikoto stiffened as the red head turned her amber eyes towards her. "Onee-sama… do _you_ have a mark?" Mikoto narrowed her eyes sharply at her roommate, her left arm stiffened and pulled itself just that little bit closer to her body as she leaned slightly away from the red head.

"…a birthmark?"

"A soulmate mark!" Kuroko corrected, eyes suddenly glowing as brightly as Saten's, "Ca~n we see~?"

"…I don't have one," Mikoto answered quickly, leaning away from her glowing teammate

"That's not true~" Kuroko smiled, almost purring, "I've seen a little of it! It's on your left—"

"KU~RO~KO~!" Saten and Uiharu flinched as Mikoto sent the redhead screamed when a burst lightning snapped at her; darkening her skin and making her hair stand on end. Unfortunately for Mikoto, she might've been able to deceive Saten and Uiharu but Kuroko was another matter—the red head had teleported into her shower more than once.

"I don't see the significance of a so called 'soulmate mark'," Mikoto sighed, leaning back in her seat as Kuroko twitched uselessly on the ground, "It's not like there's an actual chance of meeting the so called 'significant other'." Saten snickered and tapped a point on the screen, drawing Mikoto's attention to a specific headline reading ' _the science behind the soulmate mark!_ '.

"…is that supposed to make me feel better or is it supposed to make Kuroko shut up?" Mikoto asked with a raised eyebrow

"I've already clicked on it!" Saten beamed, as if that was supposed to make them proud of her, "it says that a soulmate is supposed to be the ideal partner!"

"That doesn't mean soulmate's would get together though," Uiharu pouted, having already read the link before when Saten brought it up earlier before they left for lunch with Kuroko and Mikoto. "Not all of them merry Saten."

"Well that's true," Saten smiled, "Circumstances prevents most, like distance, relatives, wars, death, marriage to someone else, I'm sure you guys can figure out the rest."

"Pretty much if two soulmate's can't marry it's because the universe hates them?" Mikoto asked, sounding amused by the conversation.

"Don't be so negative!" Saten pouted at Mikoto before she perked and seemed to vibrate in her seat again. "They say that the mark of a soulmate is on the person that is _fundamentally_ perfect for that individual, it's got nothing to do with the life they lived but everything with the personality traits and physical characteristics that make up the basic building blocks of who that person is!"

"…You got obsessed with this subject didn't you?" Mikoto asked with a smile, feeling even better than when they started the conversation.

"I don't get obsessed," Saten pouted again, "I get interested and the rumors of a soulmate mark are VERY interesting to me."

"Anything paranormal is interesting to you," Mikoto snickered

…

* * *

…

He stirred in his almost completely dark room, the echo of laughter echoing in her mind like the distant sound of a waterfall so far only the blind could hear it. He remembered what his life was like before he secluded himself in the darkness, before he hid himself away from society and lights. He remembered the friends he had, the games they played, the light they lived in… he remembered all of it.

He remembered everything, _everything_ , including the man that took his sister away

…

" _Ai-chan look it! Look what I can do!" she smiled brightly as she held up one glowing blue hand, brown eyes dancing_

" _Be careful Imoto," He smiled fondly at the smaller girl, "you don't want to hurt anyone do you?"_

" _I won't hurt anyone! I promise!"_

" _Of course you wouldn't," He smiled and patted his sister's head, delighted in the resulting giggling_

…

" _I don't know Imoto… I don't think we should go in there," Ai looked steadily at the building, unsure in their newest game_

" _It's stable enough, look it!" she pointed at the large red building, brown eyes still dancing, "People are coming and going from it all the time! I think that should be our newest game!"_

" _And what kind of game are you thinking of now?" Mo asked, amusement in her voice_

" _It's a race!" she giggled, "Whoever can get to the top the fasts is the winner!"_

" _Eh~? Isn't that unfair with Kai-kun's ability?" Ai asked, one hand his hip_

" _Nope!" the girl giggled, "because we have to go through the inside! Outside travel is forbidden!"_

" _And what's the penalty for disobeying this order?" 'Kai' asked with a huff, finally used to his newest nickname_

" _The cheater buys lunch!" she giggled_

" _And the winner?" Mo asked, still amused with their youngest member_

" _They pick out the activity for the day!" She smiled, "that or they can buy us all treats! Their pick!"_

" _I'm so winning," the boy with white hair snickered to himself, taking his place at the end of their line but closest to their youngest member. "All of you can eat my dust!"_

" _Just you wait TENSHI-chan," Kai snickered back, "I'm the fastest runner in our group"_

" _It's Enjeru!" He snapped back, pale face reddening like a tomato, "See what you did? Now they're starting!"_

" _At least you have a name!" Imoto giggled, as if she was proud of herself_

" _Whatever," Tenshi sighed, slumping where he stood beside the girl. "When are we going?"_

" _In three, two, o—"_

" _NOW!"_

" _Hay! Wait up!"_

 _They laughed as their youngest member tore off in front of them, leaving them all to catch up. They laughed, spinning around the people of the park, ducking under low branches and jumping over obstacles, each of them running straight for the big red building full of people. When they each reached the middle point, something different happened… a scream tore through the air and everyone stopped running to look back at the person screaming. Behind them Mo was clutching at her long red hair, screaming as the person holding her ponytail continued to electrocute her mercilessly._

" _Mo-chan!" they screamed, eyes widening as they each spun to face the oldest in their group, the red haired girl didn't answer, she just continued to scream as electricity sparked off her body, splitting open the pads of her fingers._

" _Onee-sama!" the scream woke everyone up and the turned just in time to shield themselves from a large blast of something black and blue, "LET GO OF HER!" the man holding Mo jerked and quickly let go of her in favor of jumping away from a mixture of black and blue strings that lashed out at him. Kai burst forward with his own power and grabbed Mo off the ground, lifting both of them high into the air before he doubled back and landed in their circle, holding Mo up while they each gathered a little closer together. Panting hard and trembling as more people dressed in black rushed towards them, something appearing and disappearing, other's weaving up water or lightning._

" _They're espers," Ai whispered in horror, knowing that the adults in black surrounding them were stronger than them._

" _What was your first clue?" Tenshi asked with a low growl, his heart beat increasing as their youngest member finally reached them and collapsed beside him. "Imoto are you okay?"_

" _I… I think so," the girl gasped, "I'm… I'm r-really… t-tiered…"_

" _You have to stay awake Imoto," Mo ordered, carefully pulling the girl into her lap, nodding her head in thanks to Kai. "I don't know what they want but either we fight until Anti-skill arrives or we run full tilt away from here."_

" _Anyone got any ideas?" Tenshi asked, stomping one foot on the ground and disrupting it, forcing a few of the shadows to fall flat on their faces. "I don't think any of us are going to last much longer…"_

" _They're level four at least," Ai said, head snapping around to observe their enemies, "We can't let them touch any of us!"_

" _The girl!" they all perked up at the hard cold voice, their attention drifting to the elector-master who attacked Mo first. "Get the girl, the youngest one!" they hissed and pulled themselves closer around Mo and Imoto, eyes hardening and powers swirling into being._

" _Not without a fight!" Ai screamed, standing protectively in front of his sister and Mo, "Three teleporters! Four Pyrokinesis, four Hydro users! That's eleven in all!"_

" _Go Ai-chan," Kai chuckled, "Alright, I call Hydros!" and his ability shot him into the air, nearly taking out two of his targets when he shot past._

" _I got Phyrokines!" Tenshi agreed, diving head first towards the fire users, disrupting their balance and messing with their abilities_

" _That leaves me with the teleporters," Ai whispered, eyes narrowing as the three in questioned jumped around him, trying to confuse him_

" _Heh, did you count me out?" Mo asked, fingers tightening on their weakest friend, "You do the math and I'll do the shooting." Ai glanced behind himself and blinked dully at the two rotating orbs that gently floated protectively around Mo, they were barely the size of her palm and defiantly unstable. But her gold-brown eyes were glowing with fury and determination, Ai couldn't keep the older girl out of the fight if he wanted too._

" _All right," he closed his eyes and concentrated on the teleporter's movements, "Three O'clock, five meters." The teleporter screamed as a thick line of green light pierced through his hip and shoulder, burning him almost from the inside out. "Six O'clock!" Ai gasped, his eyes popping open in alarm, he snapped around to defend but he could only blink in surprise at the dark mass pierced with green streams of light._

 _One of which was in the man's forehead_

" _Mo…" Ai whispered, his face paling_

" _No one," Mo growled, "no one is touching my friends!" the light exploded into a single orb, covering more than just Mo's back but her entire body—and it consumed the man attaching them._

" _Nice trick," Ai turned only to be pelted with a bolt of lightning, he screamed but he was already twenty feet away from his sister and Mo._

" _AI!" Mo screamed, her eyes wide as she watched the boy remain still on the destroyed ground, blood pooling around his small body_

" _So sorry, did you forget me?" the man asked mockingly as he walked towards them steadily, unfazed by the fighting surrounding him. Kai and Tenshi twisted in their fighting, getting just far enough away to look back at their friends, their eyes widening and their faces paling. "Hana!"_

" _Right," Mo flinched at the softly spoken agreement, her eyes widening as the third teleporter appeared and disappeared before she could attack._

" _No," Mo whispered, "no…" she looked up, her eyes widening further as she watched the remaining figures straighten and retreat from their opponents. "No… No-no!" She looked over and the woman teleporter was beside the electro-master, kneeling beside him and restraining their sister with little effort. "NO! Give her back!"_

" _Mo-chan! Ai-nii!" she screamed, kicking and struggling in her captor's hold, "Tenshi-kun! Kai-kun! Help!" they could see sparks lighting up and splitting out from her body but it seemed to have no effect on the woman holding her._

" _Take her to Kihara-sama," the electro master ordered coldly, "he'll have someone take care of her memories. We don't want a soldier to think for themselves."_

" _Yes sir," the woman was gone before any of them could scream much less stop her_

…

Once again his eyes popped open, a feeling of dread sweeping over her like thick smog of a blown up power plant. Realization dawned on him almost at the same time and he was on his feet with his blanket and bag in both arms before he ducked into the corner of the room just in time to avoid the door slamming open and blinding light entering the tiny stone room.

"He's not here!" a man's voice snapped rudely, irritation and the beginnings of anger tinting his voice, "Damn Clairvoyants, they can't see their own hands in this place!" he perked at the information, his eyes widening just slightly, his face paling. Of course the underground sewer system of academy city was the perfect place for him to hide, it was lined in a natural mineral that seemed to hinder Esper abilities and it gave off a toxin that made one hallucinate if they were down there too long. The deeper they are in the sewer system, the stronger the toxin and the less control one had of their Esper powers.

It was the perfect place for him to hide—and the most dangerous

While it stopped most of his ability from working it also put it on the frenzy. When he slept he dreamed of the past and relived all of it in perfect clarity, when his powers decided to actually work in his favor it showed his the fate of someone else nearby. Sometimes it showed his drowning and being revealed to the so called 'Anti-skill' soldiers hunting his in the pitch black maze and sometimes it showed his friends walking beside him.

After living so many years in the underground network of the tunnels and halls, he had nearly become immune to the natural toxin. As it was, once a week he was forced to surface and recuperate above ground for three days, then he could enter the sewer system again. It was dangerous and deadly if he wasn't careful but with his ability to foresee the future, past and present, he was able to avoid any and all conflicts aimed his way and could predict someone's traps.

He was the perfect clairvoyant, he saw the past, future and present—when he bothered to try

Taking careful breaths, he counted to one hundred before he dared to exit his hidden room in the system. It would take time, a lot more of it again, but he could build another room in these tunnels and not have to worry about the entire place coming down on him. He could always hire that sweet little girl to bend and move the rock to her liking, after all, with the power to move the earth little Hashan was perfect for the job. Double checking his equipment he tucked his blanket away and pulled his backpack back over his shoulders, without missing a step he continued down the stone hall, unfazed by the near complete darkness of the halls.

It was almost time for him to surface…

…

* * *

…

A few days later

…

* * *

…

He stared dully at the perfectly repaired railcar sector, the same place he had the most interesting battle the week before. The level five he battled turned out to be Mikoto Misaka, an electro master; she's all esper and no physical powers. She was so vastly different from her clones, who were all physical and brain power and next to no esper power. He was rather disappointed with the fight, having expected more from the girl, but he really should've known better considering she was in emotional distress and had temporarily lost control of her abilities when she discovered the clone's detached leg.

Still, he was disappointed in her reaction to him… although…

He turned in his place, staring up at the clear blue summer sky, a smirk twisting his lips as his eyes landed on the tall pillar of smoke steadily rising into the sky. He had heard that various buildings were being attacked, mostly research facilities, and all of them were being destroyed from the outside without the people inside losing a single life. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Mikoto had decided to fight back, she was using the very thing they relied on most to destroy them. It was a bit of a pity really, she just didn't understand how truly large the entire cooperation was. She may have been erasing the data of the scientists but she wasn't eliminating the root-case of the entire thing. So the people behind the operation where just being re-located to a different building and continuing their research with the back-up copies that they have.

She was smart enough not to leave behind any evidence of her actions but she wasn't smart enough to put in some real terror

 _This game is almost getting interesting,_ he smirked and walked away from the once-ruins of the final fight of one little clone. _I wonder if she realizes just what she's doing,_ he smiled and jump up to the bridge overhang, easily clearing the edge and landing smoothly. _Does she know that she's doing more damage to her clones?_

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 10**


	2. Chapter 2

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 2: The Price Of Marks

Koomahana

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

He stared uninterestingly at the water rolling down the river towards the ocean seeming forever away, rolling and trickling away as if his world wasn't turned upside down in the past hour. First he found some strange papers in a stuff toy, then he ran all over the city looking for the girl who knew about the experiments and… and then…

…

" _They're just clone's idiot. No life expectancy, no coast, just time. That's all they require… time" She replied icily calm, back turned to him as she stepped off the rail way and onto the side walk of the bridge. "It would be best if you stayed out of it," She walked to the edge of the bridge, "I consented to this experiment, so did he and so did they." She placed one foot on the railing, clueing herself in place with her ability. "Stay out of it," He flinched back at the frigid command. It was an order, one she would have no problem with beating into him. If he got in her way, she was going to bring the whole bridge down on him._

" _Tell them…" he perked at the soft whisper, watching her place her other foot on the rail and turn in the direction she needed to. "That I said 'goodbye'."_

 _She was gone before he could blink, sparks littering the edge of the old rail bridge_

…

He growled and spun on his foot, racing off in the same direction as the girl who left him behind. Half way to the edge the bridge shook, the air screamed and a large pillar of black smoke highlighted with flames rolled through the dark sky. The bridge nearly collapsed beneath him, several large beams fell and blocked his path, threatening to take him into the glacial waters far below. His eyes widened as he realized that the large explosion couldn't have come from the girl, she just left barely five minutes ago; the explosion had to have been done by the clone in the experiment.

That meant the clone was fighting—she was fighting to stay alive, to have her fair chance at life

"Damn it all!" he raced off the bridge, taking the first turn he could, running so fast through the stairs that he skipped a few, and raced as fast as he could towards the switchyard where the explosion came from.

 _I won't let you die without a fight!_

…

* * *

…

"Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You're smart!" Accelerator laughed loudly as he walked forward, the gravel crunching ominously beneath his feet. "You rigged this place long before we even got here!" he stopped beside the curled up body of his opponent, the girl not even moving as he hovered over her, "To bad, you're not smart enough." He was just about to slam one foot onto the girl's side when a crimson light forced him to swivel on one foot and a magnetic rail flew straight for him. Snorting Accelerator didn't think twice about slamming it into the ground, his brow twitched when the rail simply dug underground and jerked the clone into the air, snatching the knocked out girl away from him.

"Ch," He glared at the girl controlling the magnetized rail, letting it stop midair, forcing the clone to fly into her arms. The original glared right back at him, seemingly unafraid of his power, and sent up another electric current. She summoned iron partials from the ground and pulled them into a protective orb around herself, protecting her and the clone from any of his potential attacks.

 _I can kill her right?_ The thought barely registered in his mind, Accelerator calmly walked over to the nearest railcar and kicked the underside, silently raising it into the air.

"Yeah… I can kill the original," Accelerator turned to look back at the rotating black orb, "not much difference between her and the clones anyways."

…

* * *

…

"Wake up, wake up, wake up," she begged, cradling the girl's head close as she rocked in place, "Wake up, Imoto, wake up!" the clone's face scrunched up and she fell silent, watching in wonder as slowly the girl opened her eyes, eerily calm gray orbs blinked sleepily up at her. "Oh thank goodness," she whispered, butting her head against the clone's, "you're alive… you're alive!" relieved tears leaked from her eyes, dripping onto the clone's bloody face

"Onee-sama," the girl whispered slowly, "what… why are you here?"

"I'm here," Mikoto whispered, pulling back from her clone slightly, "I'm here to start acting like the big sister that I am." The clone's attention shifted to the iron sand rotating protectively around them, her eyes widening in realization. "With or without your permission," Mikoto gently let go of the clone, letting her sit on the gravel by herself, "I'm going to protect you."

"Mai must not… allow Onee-sama to-to…" the clone gasped, wrapping bloody fingers around Mikoto's wrist, "The experiment… must continue—"

"The Experiment was never meant to take place," Mikoto interrupted with a frown, "It's time for me to weep what I've sown." Mikoto rose to her full height and turned towards Accelerator, the pale form she could barely see through the thick cloud of iron particles. "Watch close Imoto," Mikoto smiled sadly over her shoulder, "I won't be able to show you twice." The Iron sand dropped to the ground, just in time to reveal a sailing metal container. Mikoto snorted and raised one glowing palm, the container hit but bent around them, creating a near perfect metallic shield around them. Calmly, Mikoto let her palms flair up again and she agilely pulled herself out from the bent and contorted metal boxcar; her power flared brightly and tugged the lose edges a little closer to center, protecting the clone. Accelerator observed her for a moment before smirking in amusement, seemingly understanding her silent challenge.

"Well aren't you clever," Accelerator commented, "ready to die in a hundred and eighty-five moves?" Mikoto simply smirked back at him; her electricity reacted first, pulling apart the nearest container till it was just ribbons and dust of what it once was.

"I'd like to see you try!" Mikoto shot back, firing the shrapnel at Accelerator as she took off in a dead sprint, her power lifting more railcars into the air. Accelerator rolled his eyes and sent the flying objects into his surroundings before he decided to chase after the original, a smirk twisting his features as he jumped from railcar to railcar.

 _This just might be fun after all_

…

* * *

…

He stumbled as the earth rolled under his feet, the train tracks beside him lighting up with electricity, another black cloud rolled through the sky, this time highlighted by furious orange from a fire on the ground. He gasped for breath but continued running for everything he was worth, he was almost to the switch yard, there was still time, he could still make it

 _Hold on Mikoto! Mai!_

He could still save them

…

* * *

…

' _watch closely Imoto, I won't be able to show you twice',_ 10032 thought as she pressed her hands against her cage, remembering how the original's hands flared a bright, blinding, white before the boxcar contorted around them protectively. If she could do the same she could open the box and get out, then she could follow her sister and take her place at death's door step.

 _Please Onee-sama,_ she thought desperately, _let me fight!_

…

" _Misaka has enjoyed the ice-cream Sunday—"_

" _Arg! Stop that!" Onee-sama snapped, racking her fingers through her hair, "its confusing people when you say my name! My class mates confuse us! When you introduce yourself with my name it confuses people! Even the dorm-room tyrant is starting to punish me for skipping class or staying out late when I'm not!"_

"… _Misaka fails to understand—"_

" _That's it I'm giving you a new name!" Onee-sama declared pointing one finger at her, her other hand stationed on her hip._

"… _Can you do that, Onee-sama?" she asked, tilting her head to the side_

" _Of course I can do that," Onee-sama replied, looking mildly insulted by the question, "I'm your big sister, it's my responsibility to make sure there's a difference between us. Having different names is the starting point." She wasn't if that was a good idea; it went against everything they were taught, against everything the scientists told them, against the very program that brought them to life._

" _Ah-ha! I've got it!" Onee-sama shouted suddenly, pulling her out of her own thoughts, "How about Mai? What do you think of that name?"_

"… _Misaka fails to understand—"_

" _Not!" Onee-sama interrupted, "your name is Mai not Misaka or Mikoto! It's Mai!"_

"… _Why?" she asked_

" _Hmm? Oh… don't you remember?" Onee-sama asked curiously, "when we first met, I asked what your name is and you said 'Maio' because that's what the sound that cat made. The cat actually made the sound 'Meow' spelt as m-e-o-w but you mispronounced it as 'maio', spelt as m-a-i-o."_

" _Then wouldn't that mean 10038's name would be 'Maio' and not 'Mai'?" she asked, feeling more confused than before_

" _Well… since 'Maio' sounds a little weird and frankly not right," Onee-sama scratched the back of her neck with a shy smile, "I dropped the 'o'. Maio without the 'o' is 'Mai'… get it now?_

" _I see," She bobbed her head courtly, "You've named us Dance… Dance does not approve of her new name"_

" _I'm talking about the name not the meaning!" Onee-sama barked, "Quite being difficult!"_

" _Mai…" She whispered unsurely, "…Mai is… fitting…"_

" _Good, now then," Onee-sama stretched and observed the sky calmly, "Want to get some dinner with me Imoto? It's late enough…"_

"… _Mai has something to do," she replied, testing the sound of her new name, "Mai regrettably declines the offer…"_

" _Hmm? Oh right, I completely derail your entire day," Onee-sama sighed, "You didn't get anything done, did you?" Onee-sama didn't appear to seek an answer as she turned away and stretched her hands towards the sky again. "Alright then, I'll see you tomorrow at that tree we met at," Onee-sama said as she started walking away, one hand waving back to her in the air, "Don't get killed over anything stupid, ya-hear?"_

" _Yes Onee-sama," She answered, watching the original walk away, "…goodbye…"_

 _It was her turn for the experiments… and they weren't stupid_

…

 _You gave us a name_ , 10032 thought, her vision doubling for a moment, _we won't let you die in our place!_

Her hands flared a blinding white and her cage broke, letting fresh air slap into her face

 _We won't let her die!_

The sisters were on their way

…

* * *

…

Accelerator laughed as he smoothly dodged shot out pieces of metal and iron sand that Mikoto threw almost recklessly at him. She used the rail nails like she used her gaming tokens, the difference being that she could make them bend according to her will. She shredded the rails into strips of thin metal and turned the railcars into bullets, she was hell bent on sending everything she had at him, even going so far as blinding him with her iron sand before she sent anything his way. As fun as it was to chase her and dodge her attacks at the same time, it was more of a work out then he previously thought, but it was also growing boring. Accelerator was just about to call out to the original when she slid to a stop, brown eyes nearly glowing with her power as she sent out another wave of her power through the earth, collecting more iron particles.

"Aren't you getting tiered of this game?" Accelerator asked as he dodged a swipe from the black sand, "This is starting to get boring…" Mikoto twitched slightly but gritted her teeth and controlled herself. She sent another set of nails towards him, letting them light up neon blue as she fired them. Accelerator didn't bother dodging; his power derailed her attacks, sending them nearly perfectly back at her—for some reason that made her smirk.

 _What is she thinking?_ Accelerator thought, crimson eyes narrowing as Mikoto dug in her pocket and pulled out a silver coin. "…what are you planning, Original?"

"Guess you'll have to wait and see," Mikoto answered mysteriously, her smirk turning into a sad looking smile, her electricity spinning around her protectively. Accelerator stared dully at her before he remembered what her 'ace' was; upon realization he threw his head back and started laughing loudly.

"Oh you've got to be kidding!" Accelerator laughed eyes wide and wild as he stared at Mikoto, "your little trick didn't work the first time! Why would it now?!"

"Because," Mikoto whispered, "It's not for you." Accelerator's eyes widened further and this time it wasn't in amusement, his eyes widened in realization—realization that Mikoto Misaka planned to shoot her railgun at him, have it backfire and _hit her_ instead. The result of having such a powerful thing shoot through her would rip her clean in half, cauterizing any flesh it touched; so while her organs would bleed her flesh would be fried.

Her death would be fast but insanely painful

 _No way_ , Accelerator watched as Mikoto's electricity lit up around her hand

 _She wouldn't…_ the coin started to glow bright red

 _They're just clones…_ there was an echoing boom that seemed to deafen and echo at the same time

 _They aren't made to last…_ a streak of crimson started towards him

 _They're designed to fail…_ faster than he could blink it was bouncing off him

 _They're meant to die…_ it raced ever closer to its once wielder

 _They're just dolls…_ the girl herself stepping further into its path, soft smile never falling

 _Who would die for dolls?_ A blinding flash of blue-white slammed into Mikoto, forcing her away from the streak of crimson

It took Accelerator a second to realize that a second railgun had been purposefully aimed at Mikoto, not strong enough to rip her apart but just enough to push her out of the way of her own death. He blinked and looked to his right, a few dozen steps away was the clone he battled with earlier, her body battered and bloody, she was gasping as if she just ran 500 meters in the world's worst obstacle course. She was so week she had to lean against a crooked container, in one hand there were two railcar nails, streaked with her blood and twitching irritably with little sparks. Accelerator blinked dully at her before he looked to his left. Nearly twenty feet away, the original was curled up around her side, laying in a near perfect divot stretching from where she landed ten feet from where she once stood all the way to her current location. The cross fire of two railguns having torn up Mikoto's side, frying the flesh just enough to make it crack and bleed. Her once proud uniform was torn almost to shreds, the top bearing a rip that nearly reached her breasts and her skirt's rim was ripped to dangling dangerously just past her hip. The long stretch of pale skin between her hip and just below her breast was marred with her overly shiny, scarlet colored blood, leaking painfully from her spider-web cracked skin and…

Accelerator's eyes widened fractionally as his crimson orbs landed and locked on a small palm sized black mark just above Mikoto's left hip bone. It looked like the eye of a great hurricane twisting her skin without rumpling it, streaks of lighter broken lines like flashes of lightning sprouted out from the center of the twisting circle. He recognized the mark well enough, he's seen it hundreds-no-thousands of times throughout his life. When he went to the pool, when he showered, when he changed, when he glanced in the mirror… it was a near perfect mimicry of his own mark—his mark that rested on _his_ right hip. He knew what it was, he knew what a 'soulmate' was—but he honestly never thought he'd find his. Finding one's soulmate was supposed to be a one in a hundred chance and actually getting to spend your life with them was a one in a thousand chance. There was a time in his life where he had gotten obsessed with 'soulmates' and searched for anything and everything related to the subject, he knew all the pros and cons of having one. Like, how some 'soulmate's went insane after their partner died. The coast of knowing and having your soulmate beside you, metaphorically or not, and then to have them suddenly gone, would wreak havoc on some people's minds. Some worse the others. He's heard of some completely losing their minds, unable to respond to anything beyond their memories, becoming little more than breathing shells of what they once were.

He was not about to turn himself into a zombie just to get the power of a level 6

"Onee-sama!" the clone's voice snapped Accelerator out of his thoughts, forcing him to re-observe Mikoto as she stood shakily in front of him, one arm wrapped around her bleeding side and the other dangling uselessly beside her. "Onee-sama run!" the clone screamed in desperation, "Mai begs of you Onee-sama! Let Mai fight in your place!"

 _Mai?_ Accelerator thought with narrowed eyes, barely even glancing back at the clone. The simple name-change was enough to clue him into what the original was thinking; someone had adjusted the clone's programing, giving them emotions instead of keeping them as emotionless dolls. That was why Mikoto was fighting so hard for the clones, she saw them as human beings who had the right to fight, the right to live. While he wouldn't have given a damn, even if they were his own clones, she was his reflection; a what if version had their lives been switched. While he was self _ish_ and desired power for himself, she was self _less_ and desired peace for everyone—clones included.

"No," Mikoto gasped, her vision doubling slightly, "I will… I will protect… who's left…" Accelerator stared dully at Mikoto, his brow twitched twice before he rubbed one hand through his hair with a heavy sigh

"So not going to happen," Accelerator drawled, with a flick of his wrist he gathered up the wind and moved the entire switchyard around, pushing the railcars around until it was a maze.

"Onee-sama!" the clone screamed, using electricity to try and clue herself to the gravel ground

"Imoto!" Mikoto screamed, throwing one hand out to the clone, her brown eyes wide in terror and realization

"This game is over"

…

* * *

…

He gasped and stumbled, bracing himself against the harsh wind that suddenly sprang up in the switchyard. He watched in horror as the railcars started to move around, creaking and groaning like monster's straining in their cages. He heard screams and strained further into the storm of screaming winds and flying rocks, trying desperately to get to at least one of the sister's before it was too late. A couple of times he found himself using a rail car to travel forward with, other times he was fending off flying rocks with his arms, trying not get one in his eye. By the time he actually made it to the 'center' of the 'storm' he found himself staring at a white haired boy standing calmly with the 'Misaka twins' screaming and reaching out to each other on either side of him. He seemed unconcerned with the twin's desperation to reach each other, the one he knew as 'Mai' screamed as her electricity suddenly cut off and she was forced into a tumble until she slammed into another railcar.

The other one disappeared

"MIKOTO!" he screamed stumbling forward with the aid of the rail car, one arm raised protectively over his face and throat. "Mikoto!" he screamed again and this time there was a reaction, the winds were suddenly silent, the railcars still; sound was muted. He watched as the white haired boy turned towards him, his crimson eyes staring straight through him, as if he was insignificant, as interesting as lint.

"And who are you?" The boy asked in complete boredom, turning away from him to approach the coughing and hacking twin named Mai.

"Mai!" he shouted, running straight for the downed girl, only he didn't quite make it to her the way he envisioned. Suddenly he was flying and slamming into a railcar almost at the same time, the world was upside down and darkening around the edges.

"You didn't answer my question boy," the white haired teen drawled lazily, lowering his arm as he walked towards him. "Who are you?"

"T-Touma," he answered dully, realizing slowly that the white haired boy had thrown him into the same railcar Mai had been slammed into. "Touma Kamijou…"

"Kamijou?" the boy repeated, pausing to lift an eyebrow at him, "A little presumptuous don't you think?"

 _I didn't pick it,_ Touma couldn't help but to think, trying to straighten out his body without his world doubling in the process

"Are… are you okay?" Mai asked, looking up at Touma blurry eyed, her arms trembling beneath her as she struggled to sit up

"I'm fine," Touma coughed, finally righting himself enough to press his feet onto the ground and his back into the railcar. "How're your wounds?"

"Mai is as well as to be expected," Mai replied calmly, blinking slowly at him, "Where did Onee-sama go?"

"I… I don't know," Touma coughed, struggling to push himself onto his feet

"Ah~ so cute," the boy mocked, rolling his crimson eyes, "What were you thinking brat? Bringing in a civilian, are you stupid? Do you want him to die? You know there can't be any witnesses"

"No," Mai gasped, pushing herself further up, using the railcar to stable herself, only for her legs to give out and send her tumbling back onto the gravel ground. "Don't… don't hurt him"

"What did you do to Mikoto?" Touma asked, glaring at the older boy as he pushed himself to his feet, leaning heavily against the railcar, "What's the point of harming these girls?"

"…Do you even know what's going on?" the other boy asked, cocking his head to the side

"I've read the report Mikoto printed off," Touma replied calmly, "you're going to kill twenty thousand clones to become a level six… which I don't understand, considering the papers said you're already the number one esper in all of Academy City. Why would you want more power?"

"…Heh, so she printed off evidence," It didn't seem like a question, so Touma didn't confirm it, "I wonder what else she did…" the boy turned his eyes towards the night sky, as if considering something Touma and Mai had no knowledge of.

"Accelerator!" They all turned just in time to jump out of the way of a furious crimson light that suddenly burst into being, going so far as to slam into the railcar Touma and Mai were beside and nearly made that same car fold in half. Touma coughed as he shook his head and pushed himself off the ground again, blinking repeatedly as he tried to focus on the scene in front of him.

"Onee-sama!" Mai screamed, a mixture of relief and terror filling her voice. Touma climbed to his feet and looked around the white haired teen standing between him and the girl who just attacked them. A few dozen feet away stood a wobbly Mikoto, blood drenched her left side, running down her arm and leg like threads and staining her side like an oversized water balloon filled with red food coloring exploded on her. Her right leg appeared to be broken, a large piece of bone was sticking out of her shin and it fizzed and crackled with electricity. Her left arm seemed as burned and bloody as her side, spider web cracks spread over her arm and side like a cruel tattoo needled too deep.

"I'm your opponent!" Mikoto screamed, pointing her good arm at the boy, a bloody but useable coin sitting innocently on her thumb, ready to take flying lessons.

"Mikoto no!" Touma screamed, "There's no need for you to go on a suicide march! I can fight him! If he loses to a level Zero the experiments will stop! Tree-diagram—"

"They can stop with my death!" Mikoto screamed back, her arm enveloping with electricity, "I'll weep what I've sown!" She let her bullet fly, sending the crimson light at the white haired boy but he seemed to have other ideas. With a gasp Touma realized he'd been slammed into another railcar again, this time he seemed to have gotten the gist of what happened. The white haired boy shifted and forced the winds to back lash everything around him, making all three of them fly into a railcar; possibly knocking out, if not killing, Mikoto in the process.

"You can't even stand," the boy drawled lazily, "How can you possibly fight if you're dead?"

"O-Onee… S-sama," Mai gasped, struggling to push herself up again

This time Mikoto didn't respond

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 10**


	3. Chapter 3

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 3: A different road

Koomahana

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

"Onee… sama," Mai questioned again, a strange tone of almost confusion possibly fear filling her voice. "Onee-sama… Onee-sama… Onee-sama, Onee-sama!" Mikoto didn't respond to Mai's voice, remaining still in her sprawled out position on the gravel, face turned away from them, blood pooling around her. "Onee-sama, Onee-sama, _Onee-sama!_ " Mai's voice was so broken sounding that it gave Touma just enough strength to push himself up again, staggering to his feet, he regarded the white haired teen as he turned to look back at him in question.

"How can you?" Touma asked, glaring at the boy, "Who do you think you are that you can kill people without facing the consequences?!"

"I think I'm Accelerator," the boy replied dully, "and the clones aren't people. They're just dolls, no life expectancy, no soul, no personality, no life and no coast. Destroy one and they'll build another. They're basically robots in human skin."

"…Ax… Accelerator?" Touma questioned in confusion, not sure if he was understanding the older boy, "How can you say that about her?" Touma waved a hand at the crying clone, huddled over herself, hands racked through her hair and drawing blood, her body quivering and wrecked sobs tearing themselves out of her body. "She fought you tooth and nail to survive! And you're saying she has no life? You call her a doll with no soul, but she's sitting there crying over her big sister! She fought you not for the sake of some twisted experiment but _for her life_! You can't put a price on life!"

"Sure I can," Accelerator snorted in disinterest, "I know for a fact that one clone coasts about the same as an apartment."

"That's not right!" Touma shouted, bursting forward with a century long telegraphed punch aimed at Accelerator's face. Accelerator seemed unconcerned with Touma's efforts as he simply scuffed the toe of his shoe against the earth, sending a wave of sharp rock and dust into the black haired boy's face. Touma coughed and stumbled back before he tried again, only to get the same result. Mai observed the one sided fight for a moment, her eyes wide, before she carefully pulled herself up to her feet and just as carefully hobbled her way towards Mikoto. Reaching the original's side, Mai collapsed to her knees, feeling her mind go blank for the first time as she stared at the body of her 'big sister'. All of her life, 10032 dealt with the voices of her 'sisters' dwelling in her mind; their input and calm advise pushing her further in her training, their memories were like silent bits of advice or visions of certain events that could happen again if she took the same road as her previous sisters. She knew every route throughout the entire city, every ally, every corner, every street address; there was not a place in Academy City where her sister's haven't been where their memories haven't surfaced in the forefront of her mind.

And now… when 10032 needed her sister's advice, when she needed their calm intellect, their cold and detached mind set…

Everyone had fallen silent

Every clone in the city, every single one remaining in the Misaka net, collapsed somewhere; unable to comprehend their failure—her failure. She could almost see through their eyes; staring lost at the cement, gravel, dirt, paths in front of her. She could feel the concerned hands of stranger's touching her shoulders and arms, carefully trying to awaken her from her stupor, feeling the cold—too cold—breeze as it twirled past her without caring for her distress. She could hear the soft murmurs of voices, the chirping of various insects, the commands from her superiors, the questions from her teachers. She could smell sweets from stores, spices from restaurants, chemicals from the labs, water from the ocean, and earth from the forest.

Suddenly she could see, hear, feel and smell everything that surrounded her sisters

Most importantly, what was right in front of her seemed to be in startling celerity, as if she was seeing it all for the first time through bionic glasses. The blood shinned too brightly in the moonlight, her skin seemed too pale against the dark gray of the gravel, her uniform too dirty and her hair seemed too dark. The smell of blood filled her nose as strongly as the chemicals from her birthing room, the feel of gravel cut her knees like the feel of the cold marble of the laboratory. She could feel the icy fingers of the wind push and pull at her, raking through her hair like wolf claws, burying deep into her flesh like a dagger and freezing everything it touched.

She gasped as she realized that one of the newly awakened clones couldn't handle the stress of the other clones, having been awake for a few days she was unused to the sudden celerity of her predecessors sometimes shared with her. 10032 realized with cold, detached realization, that the clone had snapped at the stress and despair of her predecessors and her power ended up running amok at the laboratory; forcing the scientists in question to euthanize her for their own safety. The cold feeling of life slowly leaking out of her body almost felt like a comfort to 10032 as she continued to stare numbly at the body of her 'big sister'. The feeling of death that the new clone was experiencing and transmitting to all of them… it was the same feeling her Onee-sama had to be feeling. As sudden as the realization came it went, 10032 was suddenly alone, her mind silent, her body cold. She could no more see, hear or feel her sisters then she could hear her surroundings or feel her own body—she could only see the bloody body of her Onee-sama.

"MAI~!" she looked up at the sound of the name her sister had given her and found herself staring dispassionately at Touma as he ran towards her. A single second was all she needed to see that Accelerator was laughing, his arms spread out wide around him, his hands upturned towards the sky, blood dribbled down his chin from his nose. Touma continued to run towards her, panic in his eyes, desperation in his voice as he screamed her name over and over. 10032 could understand his desperation and fear, her natural magnetic field that was never dropped even when she slept told her that the railcar twenty-eight feet behind her was being moved by the wind Accelerator was creating. In a moment it would be floating and innless it gained significant height, it would slam down on her and Onee-sama; crushing them both. 10032 blinked slowly at Touma before she lowered herself onto the bloody ground and curled beside her Onee-sama, closing her eyes in acceptance. She could hear Accelerator's laughter and Touma's panicked screaming at her to move but she couldn't bring herself to care enough to move; if Onee-sama was going to get crushed then so would she.

"Mai!" Touma screamed loudly, his voice nearly hidden in the immense wind current and laughter of Accelerator. "Get up!" no reaction from the clone, "Mai! Your sister didn't kill herself just so you can get crushed by a container!" said railcar was sliding across the gravel, digging out a deep gouge in the earth, inching closer and closer to the twins. Touma found it strange how the twins seemed to be dead already, their bodies as still as ice carvings; could someone be alive and dead at the same time? Was that even possible?

"She died to give you a chance at life!"

 _She died… she died…_ it was her fault, if she wasn't born then her Onee-sama wouldn't have died, wouldn't have had seen the need to die to save her—them. _Onee-sama is dead…_

"She chose death to give you life!"

 _Give life? No…_ if she died then maybe Onee-sama could be spared and she could come back to life… was that a strange thought? A strange wish? Could it be done? Would Kami or the guardian of death allow them to switch places? Did they even exist? If they did, would they let them switch? Would they give Onee-sama her life back at the price of 10032 dyeing in her place? Could that be done?

"She wouldn't want you to give up and die!"

 _She'd want us to give up and die?_ Yes, she'll lay there and wait for the container to crush her, she'll die and she'll do so laying beside her Onee-sama.

"She'd want you to get up and _fight!_ "

 _Fight?_ The thought echoed in her mind, a hundred different voices whispering together the single word, as if they didn't understand the meaning behind it.

"So get up!" Touma screamed, his feet sliding out from under him, making him face plant the earth. "Get up and fight!"

 _Fight?_ To take part in combat, to contend with struggle, to wage a battle, to try to prevent or oppose

"Mikoto wanted you to fight!" Touma screamed again, pushing himself up to look at the twins before he was swept away from them

 _Onee-sama… wants us to fight?_

 _She wants us to combat for the sake of life?_

 _She wants us to struggle to survive?_

 _She wants us to wage a battle to live?_

 _She wants us to oppose the scientists who command the experiments?_

"She wanted you to fight for the right to live!"

 _Fight?_ 10032 slowly opened her eyes, staring dry-eyed at the pale face of her elder sister, the smooth aster skin marked with drying blood and ash, the soft up-turn of her lips that signaled a small but pleased smile. _Onee-sama wants us to fight?_

"GET UP!" Touma screamed desperately, at the same time Mikoto's eyes opened slowly and she stared back at 10032. The resulting clone felt her eyes widen, her heart beat increase, her mind turn into a buzz of voices with hundreds-thousands of questions repeating like a cruel mantra or twenty different CD's playing at the same time.

"Hay," Mikoto whispered, small smile still in place, "I thought… I told you… to live?"

" _Don't die over something stupid, ya-hear?"_

"No," 10032 whispered, her vision blurring, "you said not to die over something stupid."

"Hmm," Mikoto closed her eyes sleepily and moved her hand just that little bit closer to her clone, "the experiments are stupid."

"…yes," 10032 agreed softly, closing her eyes and smiling in a mixture of relief, understanding and misery, a truly human expression etching itself across her face for the first time. "Yes… Mai sees that now…"

"I'm glad," Mikoto whispered, her voice straining in the screaming of the wind that surrounded them, "now… why are you still here? Are you hurt?"

"Yes," Mai whispered, sniffing as her sight blurred and her nose started running, "Mai hurts everywhere."

"Get up!" Touma screamed, the railcar lifted and seemed to drop in seconds

"Really?" Mikoto asked, sounding amused, one hand rising past Mai's head, "how silly…" Mai gasped as the railcar touched down, creating a cloud of dust around them. Touma screamed in anguish, believing that he was too late in reaching the twins, Accelerator continued laughing demonically, the wind kept screaming as if in echo of the twin's last moments.

"How could you?" Touma asked, he was laying on the ground, his face just inches off the ground. "how could you do that?!" Touma glared furiously over his shoulder at Accelerator, his black eyes looking like the black flames from hell.

"So what?" Accelerator asked, his crimson eyes wide and his smile looking almost demonic."That's what they get for being so weak!"

"With your power, you should be protecting weak not destroying them!" Touma screamed as he pushed himself to his feet and readied himself to fight Accelerator again. "why do you want power so bad?! Why do you want to be a level 6?!" For a moment, it looked like Accelerator would answer sarcastically, undoubtedly ready to spue out something that would undoubtedly make Touma hat him even more. But then his mouth snapped shut, his face drained of color, his eyes widened as if he was staring at a ghost. It was in that moment that Accelerator's face almost appeared like that of a scared child's, that Touma realized that even someone like Accelerator had a story to tell, even if he didn't want anyone knowing about it. In the next moment, Accelerator was snarling and shaking his head, trying to ride himself of a memory.

"It's none of your concern," Accelerator replied sharply, his expression guarded, "just die already!"

"Would that person you're fighting for like your methods?!" Touma asked, making Accelerator jerk at the question, "do you think that person would like what you're doing?!"

"It doesn't matter what imoto wants because she's dead!" Accelerator snapped, only to realize what he said and blinked almost doubly at Touma. "Imoto?" Accelerator questioned, his face pinching in confusion and alarming Touma, "I don't have any siblings, I'm an only child."

"I see..." Touma sighed, a look of understanding on his face as relief settled in his stomach

"Huh? What do you see?" Accelerator asked, looking up at his creation as if he worried that something might've happened to it, seeing nothing wrong, he decided to put more effort into his project.

"Accelerator ! You're just like me! Your memory has been whipped!" Touma shouted loudly, "that's why you mentioned having a little sister but you don't actually remember having one!" It was as if his words never reached the albino, his attention was still riveted to the growing, glowing plasma high over head. "What makes your sister so different from Mai?!" Big mistake, Touma later decided that he shouldn't compare Accelerator's sister to any of the clones. The reason being was because Accelerator had immediately sent a cloud of rock and metal shrapnel flying through the air fast enough to make him blink and realize that he was leaning against a railcar a hundred plus feet away from his previous place. There was a shout, and though Accelerator didn't bother looking, Touma couldn't help it. A few dozen feet from him, were two box cars propped up by a third, creating a large protective burrier again the wind.

"Onee-sama," Mai gasped, snapping into a sitting position, somewhere in the back of her mind she could feel her sister's gathering once again, moving as fast as they could to the switchyard. "You shouldn't be moving," Mai carefully placed her arms around Mikoto, as if she was glass and she didn't know how to hold her. "You need to rest!"

"Hay now," Mikoto coughed, smiling tiredly at her, "Who's the big sister here?"

"Uh-um… you?" Mai answered unsurely, tilting her head to the side in confusion

"Then don't you think that I know what I should and shouldn't be doing?" Mikoto asked, seemingly amused with her clone, her brown eyes sparkling strangely.

"No," 10032 answered honestly, "you threw yourself in front of your Railgun trying to commit suicide to save Mai—Mai does not approve of this action!"

"Of course you wouldn't," Mikoto snickered, patting 10032 on her head, ruffling the clone's short brown locks, "but I bet if our places were switched… you'd have done the same thing."

"Of course Mai would," 10032 huffed, feeling her sister's get ever closer to her, "it is Mai's task to—"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence," Mikoto hissed, her eyes flashing warningly at the clone, "Don't you dare say it."

10032 blinked in surprise, having never before seen her elder sister angry, "…yes, Onee-sama…"

"Good," Mikoto bobbed her head, her anger instantly gone as she lit up the rail car atop them and moved it to the side, revealing Accelerator to them. "Did he lose it?" Mikoto asked herself, observing her surroundings carefully, listening to the howling wind as if it were protesting the abuse it was experiencing and watching the strangely bright moon light make everything before then glow like it was made from moon light. Sighing heavily, as if she really didn't know what to do, Mikoto rolled her eyes sky word and froze. "oh crud," Mikoto breathed in shock, her eyes widening. Curious 10032 raised her eyes, instantly feeling the same surprise and shock as Mikoto.

"Onee-sama," 10032 whispered in both awe and confusion, "what is that?"

"Plasma… I think," Mikoto answered slowly. "It looks like he's gathering all the wind in Academy city and condensing it into a single place… by condensing so much air into such a small place… he could be making Plasma but… I've never heard of that being done with air before. I don't even know if that's possible…" in the back of her mind, 10032 knew that her sisters were on the move, the closest ones were moving towards them while others were moving towards the nearest wind turbine. They were dividing up their given tasks and being reasonable about it, those on the far side would rush to the nearest turbine and those close enough to the switchyard would continue making their way towards them.

"What do we do now?" 10032 asked, blinking slowly at the violet-pink glowing ball of shifting light, "Mai is already at several wind turbines and is rotating them back words to disrupt the flow of the wind… what do we three do here?"

"Figure out another way to stop him," Mikoto answered, pushing herself up to her feet, her body sparking and glowing with electricity as she forced it to move. "You keep the girls there until Accelerator has lost for sure, I'll distract him enough to completely lose concentration on what he's doing now."

"Onee-sama," 10032 reached out to her, bloody fingers trembling, her dark gray-brown eyes locking onto Mikoto's broken leg.

"Don't worry," Mikoto smiled down at her, "I won't die, not yet at least." She smiled in relief, glade her Onee-sama would fight for her life too.

"Be safe… Onee-sama"

"But of course," Mikoto smiled at her, "I still have to teach you all my tricks!"

…

* * *

…

 _All the wind in Academy City,_ Accelerator thought, crimson eyes glowing as he dropped them onto the cause for his sudden power boost, Touma was laying against the farthest railcar in the circle around them, looking like he was half dead. Accelerator smirked at him in amusement before he realized something was wrong—vastly wrong. His plasma was shrinking, becoming unraveled and unstable. His calculations were correct, they always wore, there was no way he could've mistaken the calculations it would take to create his attack to completely destroy the boy and possibly a good portion of Academy City. He hissed as the plasma unraveled before his eyes, glaring down at Touma, Accelerator quickly dismissed him as the cause; instantly he searched his surroundings for anyone or anything that could disrupt his attack. At first his eyes landed on the distant wind turbines in the next district over, his eyes widening fractionally as he realized that they were spinning the wrong way. He was filled with confusion for barely even a moment, he snapped around and his crimson eyes imminently locked onto the clone sitting on the gravel looking like some broken and bloody doll. Mikoto was standing protectively in front of her, her body aglow with her electricity, keeping it moving despite the broken bones she had and the huge blood lose she was starting to suffer from. For another moment Accelerator hesitated, his eyes landing onto Mikoto before dropping onto her still bleeding side and clueing themselves to her barely palm sized black mark. He was hoping that his last attack would knock her out for some time but it would appear she was more stubborn then he thought, her desire to protect the clone over powering her body's need to rest.

"Accelerator!" Mikoto screamed into the wind, pulling a single magnetic rail out of the ground and carefully wrapping it around her clone before nearly flinging her towards Touma, knowing she'd be safest with him. "You're craze for power ends here!" Accelerator stared blandly at the burnet, as if he didn't understand her words or couldn't comprehend her desire to fight him. Sighing again, Accelerator silently noticed his plasma disappearing compleatly but his wind still focusing around them in a dangerous spinning torrent. He turned his eyes heaven word for a moment before he nodded and turned to face Mikoto completely, giving her his undivided attention.

"You want to fight me to the death?" Accelerator asked, cocking his head to the side, "you won't win."

"I don't care much for winning," Mikoto replied calmly, her electricity shooting out to connect with the railcars, shredding them into pieces, "I car for my SISTERS!" she sent the shredded pieces of metal at Accelerator, already knowing that they'd never reach him yet trying all the same. Accelerator glanced at a nearby container purposefully and sent one of Mikoto's magnetized nails towards it, ripping the side wide open and spilling the contents for the world to see. Mikoto froze for barely a moment, her eyes widening in horror, her face paling further, her body twisting and her electricity already arcing towards Touma and Mai.

"Flower plus wind plus sparks," Accelerator smirked to himself, crimson eyes glowing as flower spilt into his current of wind, surrounding them in almost puriest white.

"Mikoto / Onee-sama!" Touma and Mai screamed at the same time, the former quickly shielding the later

"Look out!" Mikoto screamed, her eyes wide, one hand outstretched towards them

"…Equals _boom_ ," Accelerator relaxed his stance slightly, watching the flower dust brush the edge of Mikoto's electricity.

The ground shook

The air trembled

The sound traveled throughout all of Academy City

The darkness was chased away with a pillar of echoing orange flames

The stars were hidden behind a thick veil of onyx smoke and yellow light

…

* * *

…

She coughed and wheezed, tears threatening her vision as she tried to breathe in the sudden darkness surrounding and suffocating her. She pressed one hand to her head, wondering about the ringing in her ears and the throbbing in her temples as if someone thought it would be a great idea to replace her head with a drum.

"Are you alright?" she felt someone place a hand on her arm and reflexively looked in that direction, not expecting to see anything in the sheer darkness of… wherever she was.

"Mai is as well as to be expected," She answered stiffly, pushing herself up, one hand resting against the burning pain of her right arm, "Where is Onee-sama?"

"I don't know," the boy, Touma, said softly, "Can you give us any light to work with?"

"…Mai can try" 10032 answered softly, coughing slightly as she sat back to observe her new surroundings. Wasn't there a wall of fire coming at her? Was she dead and in the afterlife with that strange boy who knew Onee-sama?

…was Onee-sama with her?

With a fresh wave of panic coursing through her, 10032 lit up her good hand with electricity, gray eyes wide and searching as her new surroundings came into startling clarity. Touma hissed at the sudden light, flinching back before slowly letting his eye-site adjust to the pale blue light that now surrounded them. Together, Mai and Touma, stared dumbly at the black stained crimson that surrounded them, looking oddly metallic as it vibrated slightly, giving them barely any room to move without touching each other but enough to do so without touching it.

"Is this… a railcar?" Touma asked, pressing his hand against the nearest wall, only to hiss and jerk his hand back. "It's hot," Touma grumbled, rubbing at his now crimson stained hand, beating and burning furiously for his mistake.

" _Look out!"_

Touma gasped at the memory, his dark eyes widening as he snapped around to look for that girl flying towards them but their little eight by ten pace showed only the younger twin, Mai. He stared back at the younger girl, watching her tremble in her seat, her breathing beginning to quicken, her electricity starting to act haywire, shooting out at the hot metal like angry needles. He couldn't blame her, they watched as Mikoto dove for them, her electricity was already shooting into the metal boxcars around them and contorting them with little effort.

She must not have made it to them in time… her last action was to create this dome to protect them

"Onee-sama," Mai whispered, drawing Touma's attention back to her "Onee-sama…"

"…She should be safe," Touma said softly, not really wanting to give up on the girl who seemed to have an endless list of tricks up her sleeves. "She made this without thinking twice about it," He gestured to their cage, trying to smile encouragingly at the clone as she turned trembling gray eyes towards him, "She had to have created something to protect herself." It took a moment, the clone sniffed repeatedly, tears threatening her eyes before she was able to stop them, but with a few gasps of air the girl was able to bring herself under control again.

"Y-yes," Mai whispered, hick-upping even as she whipped at her wrist, ignoring the electricity that sparked off her fingers, "Onee-sama… she's defiantly alive." Her sisters were already there, searching for them. From what little of their memories she was allowed to see, she knew the switchyard was a complete mess, everything was upside down, burnt down and completely destroyed. They would never be able to clean it up before a civilian found them, then again according to a few of her sisters, civilians were already casing the place, looking for survivors. They would never be able to leave without Anti-skill or someone else finding them.

…

* * *

…

Her world was blurry, her body achy but numb at the same time, it was dark and yet there were flashes of light. Slowly her eyes pinched together before they slowly opened, her world was blurry and unfocused in her conscious state. She could barely make out the light-dark blue combo swirling seemingly in front of her face but as it slowly cleared, she realized there was something else between her and the swirling blue. Something pale and light… something as wavy and unsteady as the swirling blue far but close to her face, what could be that white-gray thing highlighted pale blue? She breathed, noting silently how her chest vibrated and something trickled out of the corner of her mouth, the white thing shifted and she could almost feel something tighten around her but she wasn't sure.

Did she hear someone whispering to her?

Did something just touch her forehead?

Was she wet?

Her world was darkening…

…

* * *

…

They had been called onto the scene, the echo of the explosion and blinding light alarmed everyone in the city. Technically Anti-skill was already on their way over to the scene when they got the call, several judgement officers were already there, using their telekinesis to lift some objects to aid their search. She showed up relatively quickly herself, living nearby helped. When she arrived on scene, it took everything she had not to openly gap at the mass of destruction presented to her like a blanket of war. There were still fires burning here and there, some containers still splintering open with echoing booms, some debris were still sent flying and some people were still combing the safer reaches as best as they could. It had taken them nearly an hour to organize a command system and organize a possible rescue of anyone who might've been caught in the explosion. It had been four hours since her arrival, blood was found in the apparent epic center, as well as bits and pieces of cloth that seemed to belong to a very familiar looking uniform. A certain red head judgment officer was the first to come to mind but no one brought forth a green badge so she held off on that particular assumption.

"Captain Yomikawa Aiho! Captain Yomikawa Aiho!" she turned at the sound of her name, her purple hair whipping around behind her as she snapped around to regard the panicked stricken man running towards her. "Captain Yomikawa Aiho! Captain Yomi—!"

"Stop shouting my name and tell me what's going on!" Aiho snapped out, purple eyes narrowing into a glare at the man as she started moving quickly towards him, "Well?! What's wrong?!"

"There a container of some sort," The man answered with a slight stuttered, stopping just to spin on his heal and start moving away.

"What do you mean 'some sort'?!" Aiho snapped out with a glare as she started into a dead run, following the man to his destination, the cause for his panic. "Is it a container or not?!"

"Well yes but," the man hesitated as he slid to a stop and pointed to his problem, "it's not a railcar!" she slid to a stop beside him, her purple eyes widening and her face paling at the object he was talking about. True to his word a metallic object sat on the gravel, nearly perfectly round and constructed with what appeared to be several different railcars smashed and twisted together. Sparks still rolled off its sharp corners, some of it was still glowing a molten red from the fire it survived through while some of it seemed to be glowing from the electricity it was halfheartedly bathed in.

"Wha-what in the world?" Aiho asked no one, a solid sounding thump sounded from the inside of the metallic orb, the electricity lighting up bright blue before dyeing down into little crackles again. "Someone is inside!" Aiho gasped, sprinting forward, "Get someone with Telekinesis here NOW!"

"I'm already here," a new voice gasped out, Aiho turned to look at the speaker, her eyes widening again at the sight of the young judgment officer. He was covered in burns, scrapes and bruises, his uniform was covered in ash and dirt, a few blood splatters as well, his brown hair stood on end and smoking a little at the tips. "We'll need someone to cool down that thing before I try again; I'm tired of getting thrown around by that thing."

"Just what happened to you?" Aiho asked, sliding to a stop to observe the high scholar

"I tried to lift the thing but it shot out electricity at me," the boy answered, "I tried lifting something to knock it away and it sent out an electric current that knocked a bunch of things over and berried it again. No matter what I do I can't move that thing without something happening to make the situation worse."

"Would a Hydro user help?" Aiho asked, "I know a girl who knows one. I've met her once or twice."

"That'd help but I'm not sure for how long," he replied, rubbing the back of his neck, "I threw some of my water at it but it was like there's an electric shield around it. Not a drop got through."

"…My friend still might be able to help," Aiho replied with a stiff frown, pulling out her cellphone and dialing away.

" _Hello? Konori Mii here,_ "

"Konori-san do you have that nosy brat's number?" Aiho asked, "The red head friends with the Railgun?" Aiho turned away from the telekinesis user, purple eyes sharp like daggers as she glared at the metallic orb, "yeah her, can you call and tell them I need their help in the switchyard? Something's trapped under a… uh thing," Aiho frowned to herself, as if she didn't know how to describe the thing to her friend. "And it's lighting up with electricity but none of our efforts are getting the electricity to dim or go elsewhere. It's making everything more difficult than it needs to be." The voice on the other line rattled of some things in quick succession, Aiho simply made a few none con sounds like 'ah', 'hm', and 'yeah'.

"So you'll bring the girl's here?" Aiho asked with a curious tilt of her head, "Alright that's great, thanks for the help." She hung up and turned back to the telekinesis user and her subordinate, "The girls I was talking about, they'll be here soon."

"When will they arrive?" the man asked, both hands on his knees as he panted heavily. Before Aiho could respond, a strange little tinkering noise sounded, startling the three. Aiho glanced at the two males before she turned around and started to walk towards the epic center of the destruction, her eyes on the ground as she started to search for the creation of the strange noise. Pausing just off to the side of the epic center, Aiho blinked dumbly down at the ash and gravel ground, she crouched and brushed her fingers over a large lump on the ground.

 _The noise is coming from here,_ Aiho thought, carefully unburying the object in question, hesitating for a brief moment when the strange sound stopped. She stopped as she found something green poking out curiously from the ground, her eyes narrowed as she realized the strange thing was a cellphone. She went to grab it the ringing started up again, making her pause for a moment before she lifted it, opened it and answered.

"Hello?" Aiho answered the cellphone carefully, trying not to be unnerved by the dried blood dripping off from the end of the frog-shaped cellphone

" _Who the hell is this?_ " a feminine voice on the other side asked rudely, making Aiho's brow twitch at the lack of manners from the young girl.

"This is Aiho Yomikawa," Aiho answered back, irritation sounding in her voice. "I'm captain of district eight in the switchyard sector, branch 73, who the hell is this?"

" _This is Kuroko Shirai, of judgment branch 177_ _th_ ," the girl answered back, her voice was suddenly full of confusion and concern, as if she didn't know what to make of the woman answering her friend's phone. " _Where is Mikoto? Is she there?_ "

"Mikoto?" Aiho asked, body stiffening, "Mikoto Misaka? As in the Railgun?"

" _Yeah… this is her number so you should be on her phone_ ," Kuroko continued, eyes narrowing for a moment as she decided to teleport her way towards her branch office. " _Is she there?_ "

Aiho glanced around herself, her eyes momentarily falling onto the metal orb several feet behind her, "… I'm not sure how to answer that."

" _What do you mean you don't know how to answer that?_ " Kuroko asked, frustration in her voice, " _You're on her phone!_ "

"Her phone was half buried in ash and rubble," Aiho sighed, rising to her full height, "I'm sorry Shirai-san… Misaka-san… I think she's here in the Switchyard district seventeen… that might be why we can't move this giant metal ball. It might be her inside"

" _Tell me everything you know!_ " Kuroko ordered coldly, Aiho sighed as she heard the telltale sounds of teleportation, she doubted the red head stopped to completely form before she was off again.

"… Last night about O-nine-hundred there was a dust explosion," Aiho explained, "I think she might've been the spark for that explosion."

"… _is she alright?_ "

Aiho hated this part of her job

"…There's blood on her cell phone…" _and all over the switchyard_

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 12**


	4. Chapter 4

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 4: Searching

Koomahana

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

"Yomikawa-san!" she snapped around at the sound of her name, her eyes widening at the sight of a flying red haired middle scholar, "I'm Kuroko Shirai of Tokiwadai!" in the blink of an eye she was gone, barely a second later she was in front of her, landing softly on the ground, "I'm-I'm…"

"Easy there!" Aiho snapped, reaching forward quickly to grab hold of the girl before she could collapse, "How fast did you move?" Aiho asked as she gently led the girl to the ground, gritting her teeth at the sight of the red head's too pale face and trembling limbs.

"N-Not fast… enough," Kuroko gasped, dark smudges under her brown eyes, "Onee-sama… where?"

"We haven't found her yet," Aiho tried to reason with the girl, "We suspect where she might be but we haven't heard anything from that thing in a while."

"Take me there," Kuroko gasped, struggling back onto her feet, "She-Onee-sama… she could be hurt!"

"You're hurt!" Aiho hissed, grabbing hold of Kuroko's wrist, "don't even think about—" Kuroko disappeared again, leaving Aiho's hand empty and oddly cold, "Damn it!" Aiho jumped to her feet and ran past the few people she was surrounded by, heading straight for the metal orb, she reached the epic center just as the red head landed, falling onto her side when her legs gave out. "Shirai-san you idiot!" Aiho screamed, racing forward as fast as she could, "are you trying to get yourself killed?! You need to rest!"

"But Onee-sama!" Kuroko tried to protest

"Isn't going anywhere!" Aiho snapped as she slid to a stop and slammed a fist into the red head's head, feeling unsympathetic as the girl nearly blacked out from the hit. "You think your precious Onee-sama would like it if you died trying to get to her?! Rest is important if you want to be in good enough health to get to her!" Kuroko looked miserably up at Aiho, watching with terry eyes as the woman straitened and glared at the nearest anti-skill officer.

"You there!" Aiho snapped out, "Get someone to open that damn thing!"

"The crew is already on its way ma'am," the officer replied quickly, body snapping to attention, "The equipment should be here soon!"

"Equipment?" Aiho questioned with a slight frown

…

* * *

…

"How… how much longer," Touma panted, sitting back and nearly slamming his back into the girl trapped with him, "until… w-we're fr-free?"

"'N-Not long' Mai answers simply," 10032 gasped herself, staring dully into the complete darkness surrounding them, her strength to keep up the electric glow of her palm having died long ago.

"Your sisters?" Touma questioned

"'No, someone else… Judgement'," 10032 answered, panting softly. "Mai answers… trying to hide… how tiered… she-she is."

"Oh," Touma closed his eyes and turned his face towards the ceiling of their cage, "this should be fun."

"'Fun?' Mai questions in confusion" 10032 frowned in the darkness, "Mai does not understand how this could be 'fun'."

"No, not this," Touma corrected tiredly, "Explaining to Anti-skill and Judgement." He trailed off, dark eyes staring wonderingly at near suffocating darkness around them, "… it was… sar~casm."

"…Mai understands sarcasm," 10032 panted, her eyes dropping slightly, "Though she does not understand… it in this instance."

"You will," Touma coughed, "I promise you that… I'll t-teach you… wha-at th-that lab… for-orgot t-to"

"…'Mai estimates… that our oxygen is running low,' Mai says, explaining the boy's broken speech" 10032 comments slowly, her eyes slipping closed just to snap open only to repeat the process again. "'Mai suspects… that there isn't much time left… before we're out… of air…" Suddenly their cage rattled, Touma and Mai both jerked at the sound, their eyes widening as the very bottom of their cage slowly lit up with something bright white almost like light. They watched it hypnotized for a moment, gasping as fresh air surrounded them and they both breathed in deeply, trying to consume as much air as their bodies could handle. Together they both collapsed at the nearest edge, faces pressed to the ground and noses close to the gap, their breaths quick and uneven. As sudden as the lifting of their cage was, it slammed down again, cutting off their new air supply; Touma groaned loudly, closing his eyes as if he was in pain. Mai stared at his features barely hidden in the renewed endless blackness that surrounded them, she panted heavily for a moment before she pressed her fingers against the edge of their cage. Mai closed her eyes and tried to concentrate, she heard of the abilities of her sister, how she had a constant awareness of everything within fifteen meters of her position, in a perfect three hundred and sixty degrees. If she could do something similar, if she could send out her electricity to search out for something metallic that she could wedge between the cage and the ground, she could get them new air.

As if consenting to 10032's attempt for new air, the cage rattled again and lifted a little from the ground, almost half the distance of the first time. 10032's eyes widened and she sent out a burst of electricity, snatching up the closest metallic object and jerking it towards their location. Their cage fell again but not before it took five rail nails into the earth with it. 10032 closed her eyes as she breathed heavily, it wasn't enough of a gap to get them constant new air to breath, she had to get something bigger between the cage and the ground or else they were going to suffocate. 10032 waited patiently for the cage to lift, to fill her time she counted the seconds, she reached 93 seconds when the cage rattled for a third time. Again 10032 didn't waste any time, she sent out another electric shock, grabbing up as much metal as she could and yanked with everything she had at it. All at once it seemed as the world was crashing down on them, their cage shook and rattled, a mountain slamming down on it as if trying to squash it into rubble. The bottom of the cage where they laid filled with dust, forcing Touma and Mai to jerk back coughing. Once the dust was clear enough for them to 'see' what had happened, Mai nearly groaned as loudly as Touma did; the very bottom was filled with rubble, completely blocking off their air supply. With a small sound of distress, Mai crumbled back into her previous laying spot and pressed her fingers into the cool gravel blocking their air supply. Her fingers barely got two inches in before she felt something as cold as ice and as smooth as glass press against the pad of her fingers. Blinking dumbly, Mai scooped a handful of the gravel aside and pressed her fingers against the newly revealed object. Although she was once again bathed in completely darkness, Mai tried to 'see' with her fingers as blind people did; if her guess was right she was able to pull a piece of railway under the cage. Mai gasped and swallowed before she continued digging, it wasn't long before Touma was beside her doing the same; apparently having heard her and had guessed about what she was doing.

"You're something else, you know that?" Touma asked softly

"Mai does not understand," 10032 replied calmly, her eyes dilating in the darkness as she caught a spark of light

"Most other girls would be panicking," Touma explained, "they defiantly wouldn't have had the foresight to use their ability so quickly. You skipped over the panic stage and went straight to work on figuring out a way out of this mess."

"…Onee-sama would be disappointed if she couldn't teach Mai all of her tricks," 10032 replied simply. Touma glanced at her in the darkness, a soft smile slipping on his face as a sliver of light slowly revealed itself by lighting up the clone's face. As much as the girl looked 'identical' to Mikoto, she actually had ash-gray eyes and her hair appeared to be a little darker. They weren't completely identical, so they weren't perfect clones of Mikoto; they were just artificial life that took on a similar form as Mikoto.

"She's alive you know," Touma said softly pulling away the last of the soil to reveal one of the strips of rail that Mikoto had shredded in her fight against Accelerator. It sat upon the nails Mai was able to grab; this gave them a good two inches between the cage and the ground, giving them plenty of new air to breath.

"…Mai does not understand how you know so," 10032 said softly as she glanced at Touma, watching him smile sadly back at her. "'Does your ability allow you to for see the future?' Mai asks feeling curious about the boy who knows Onee-sama so well."

"It's not so much 'know' as it is 'hope'," Touma corrected with a slight chuckle. "And no, I'm a level zero but that's beside the point. Mikoto is a level five electro-master, the strongest electro-master in all of Academy City. We were surrounded in metal straight from the get-go, there's no way she couldn't have magnetized some of it to create a shield for herself."

"…like what Onee-sama saved us with?" 10032 asked, staring blankly at the black haired boy

"Yeah," Touma smiled and this time it seemed brighter than before, "She defiantly had to have saved herself if she had the strength to save us."

At least that was his hope

…

* * *

…

She was floating but laying

She was flying but falling

She was moving but still

What was she doing?

She could taste copper and salt

She could hear the wind in her ears

She could smell the scent of rain and earth

She could feel the frigid coldness of water on her skin

"You'll be okay," a warm breath of air ghosted over her face and it made her realize that her left side was significantly warmer than her right. She took a deep breath and smiled sleepily, the wind was still cold enough to make her feel as if she was an ice carving, so she snuggled a little closer to that warm thing. Suddenly that warm thing seemed to have stilled or at least stiffened, as if it wasn't used to something cuddling closer to it.

She felt another warm breath on her cheek that ghosted down her neck

"You'll be okay,"

…

* * *

…

 _How long?_ Touma opened his eyes slightly, staring sleepily at the smooth face of Mai, noting her eyes were closed and her breathing was even; signaling that she was asleep. _How long have we been in here?_ When was the last time he saw the sun? When was the last time he could stand to his full height without hitting something? When was the last time he could—

 _SCREEEEEEE_

Touma nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard a loud echoing sound rattle through the cage. Mai was instantly awake and trying to push herself up on trembling arms, trying to face the direction of the possible threat, sparks lighting up her hair and floating down her arms like silk threads. Together they faced the wall behind them, watching curiously as little by little more and more orange sparks bloomed into being. It took Touma seconds to realize that someone had found them and were attempting to save them from the cage that surrounded them protectively.

"Saved," Touma gasped, looking towards Mai with a bright smile, "We're saved!" Mai smiled sadly and collapsed, her eyes rolling into the back of her head, her body going limp like wet noodles. "Mai!" Touma shouted, shaking the girl's shoulder, "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" Touma watched as Mai gasped softly, sweat breaking out across her face, her body trembling slightly in the near darkness. He gritted his teeth and turned back to the growing lines of sparks, as the orange sparks grew into longer and longer lines along the wall, Touma could hear sounds from beyond his cage. Thinking cautiously, Touma carefully pulled Mai a little further away from the orange sparks; he didn't need that thing landing on her, it could break something that was currently keeping Mai alive.

 _Chink_

The rectangle figure the glowing lines formed was finally completed and the center piece was free—free enough to fall on them. Touma gasped and spun on his heal diving over the knocked out girl behind him, hoping to protect Mai from the majority of the danger. However, just as the rectangle piece of metal started to fall towards them it stopped moving entirely; Touma blinked and looked dumbly at the possibly lethal piece of metal floating before him.

"You got it?" a gruff voice outside the cage asked, Touma moved slowly to his feet

"Yes Ma'am," answered another, Touma carefully pulled Mai into his arms, understanding that someone with telekinesis must've grabbed the piece of metal before it could land on them.

"Then get it out of the way!"

"Yes ma'am!" Touma flinched back as the piece of metal jerked itself free from the convenes of the cage, letting in a blinding amount of light. It took him longer then he'd like to admit to adjust to the morning sunlight streaming in from the outside, with nothing to block the intense brightness from him.

"You okay in there?" slowly Touma turned his eyes towards the rectangular opening, twitching slightly at the blinding brightness of the sunlight beyond it. Once his eyes were close enough to being adjusted to the bright light, Touma blinked slowly at the shadow of a woman standing just beyond the cage. The woman had long purple hair and matching eyes, she wore the uniform of an Anti-skill officer, she must've been a high ranking one if she wasn't wearing the helmet like most did.

"Hurry up the electro-masters can only distract the electricity for so long," the woman informed him, pressing one palm to the side of the opening as she pushed herself a little further inside, "Are you hurt? Can you tell if she's alive?" at the reminder of Mai being in his arms, Touma jerked back into reality and quickly looked down at the clone, examining her closely for any signs of life. That was when he noticed something extremely important, he had been too busy watching the glowing lines appear to notice her condition before but now that he stopped to study her, he realized just how big of a mistake that was.

"She's not breathing" the woman's face paled drastically and her eyes widened

"Get a medic over here!" the woman screamed shrilly, barely even glancing over her shoulder as she dived into the cage, nearly slamming Touma away from the clone as she set the girl on the ground. "How long as she been like this?" the woman asked sharply as she checked for vitals, her teeth grinding together.

"I don't know," Touma answered, "I wasn't watching her constantly but it couldn't be that long… she was fine when you started grinding through the cage for us, she feinted right after that."

"So not long," the woman bobbed her head and pressed her hands together over the clone's chest, without prompt she started pushing down on the girl's chest, preceding with CPR as quickly as possible.

"Onee-sama?" Touma jerked at the soft whisper, his eyes widening as he looked towards the entrance of the cage, his black eyes widening as he found himself staring at the horrified brown orbs of the familiar red haired girl he met with the night before. "What happened?! What's going on?!" the girls eyes swiveled and locked onto Touma, they were wide for a moment before the narrowed into a glare, hatred instantly etching itself over her face. "What did you do to Onee-sama?!"

"Whoa back up! I didn't do anything!" Touma quickly intervened

"So what, after you left the dorms you found Onee-sama like this?!" Kuroko asked, sarcasm lasing her words, "What did you do to her?!"

"Listen this isn't the girl you call Onee-sama!" Touma said desperately, "This is Mikoto's little sister Mai!"

"Onee-sama doesn't have any siblings!" Kuroko argued, "I already asked her!"

"I don't doubt that but when did you ask her?" Touma asked, "Mikoto only found out recently!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" the woman asked, bending over to breath air into the clone's mouth before returning to moving the girl's chest herself, "what aren't you telling us?" Touma hesitated for a moment, the likely hood of them believing his story about 'Mai' being Mikoto's clone wasn't very high. If anything they would accuse him of doing all the damage to the girl and if she didn't wake up then it would only get worse and worse for him.

He couldn't tell them the truth but he could distort it a little…

"Listen to me and try to keep an open mind about this," Touma sighed, resigning himself as he looked back down at the clone. "When Mikoto Misaka came to Academy city she didn't come alone. She arrived here with her little sister Mai Misaka."

"I already told you that Onee-sama doesn't have any siblings!" Kuroko snapped loudly, her voice echoing in the close space of the cage, "She told me—!"

"Mai was kidnapped when they were still kids, before they became recognized for their talent with electricity," Touma interrupted coldly, sitting back in the cage, his back inches away from the still heated metal of the cage. Touma didn't need to look to know that his words had shocked both the girl and the woman into silence, almost making the woman still in her attempt of saving Mai's life. "Mikoto watched it happened and tried to intervene but they whipped her memory instead, it's possible that not even her mother remembers Mai's existence."

"…Who would do that?" the woman asked as she pulled back from the clone, relief filling her as the girl started to breath for herself, barely even coughing when she gained control again.

"I don't know," Touma answered, "I didn't read all of the papers Mikoto printed off."

"Do you still have these papers?" the woman asked, turning to look at him seriously

"No," Touma sighed, taking the clone's wrist into one hand and testing her pulse himself, "She destroyed them when I confronted her last night about it." The woman sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose as she closed her eyes, as if she was in pain.

"This conversation doesn't go beyond us," the woman ordered, turning to glare over her shoulder at Kuroko, "None of you are allowed to speak of this again, that understood?"

"But—" Kuroko tried to interrupt

"Understood captain," Kuroko gasped and snapped around, her eyes wide as she stared at up at the teen standing to the side of the opening in the cage. "Don't worry; it was just the three of us, no one else heard."

"Good," the woman turned to regard the entrance and the two students hovering around the edge of it. "My name is Aiho Yomikawa, captain of squad 17, you three remember it."

"Yes Ma'am," the boy smirked, "I'm Akira Toshigawa, I'm a level three telekinesis."

"Um… I'm Kuroko Shirai," Kuroko sniffed, rubbing one wrist against her eye, "I'm a level four teleporter."

"And I'm Touma Kamijou," Touma sighed, as if he knew something ridiculous was about to happen, "and I'm a level zero." True to his predictions the other three stared at him as if he had three heads, six arms and eight legs; that is, before Kuroko and Akira started laughing hysterically

"…are you serious?" Aiho questioned in disbelief

"Yeah," Touma sighed, bowing his head in defeat

…

* * *

…

It took Anti-skill and Judgement several more hours but they were able to find evidence of Mikoto's standing in the wrecked land of the switchyard.

The evidence wasn't very promising

Touma stared numbly at Kuroko kneeling on the gravel ground, she was wailing loudly as she clutched at a little piece of gray cloth—the only evidence they could find of Mikoto Misaka. Beside the red head was a kneeling navy haired teen, Aiho and another middle school girl wearing the same green Judgment badge as Kuroko. The high scholar beside Kuroko tried to calm her, rocking them both back and forth, whispering gently to the red head; as if that could make a difference. To Kuroko's other side stood a numb looking black haired girl, her short hair was pulled back with a large headband covered in flowers. He watched as the girl slowly lifted her cell phone and calmly dialed a number and waited patiently. Near the epic center of the site stood several Anti-skill officers, each holding a bag containing something, one had the misfortune to be holding the bag with the little, bloody, green phone inside. The phone rang and the officer looked down at it in confusion before he looked up at the flower haired girl with dawning realization. The girl ended her call, waited a moment and called again, she hung up, dialed and hung-up again; she repeated this process seven times before she finally processed that the green phone she's been staring at belonged to the person she was calling. Once she acknowledge this discovery, she clutched at her phone with both hands, as if she was praying. Then she calmly opened her phone again and dialed a number, this time someone answered and the girl tried to talk as calmly as she could but she ended up slamming onto her knees and crying hysterically herself. Aiho sighed heavily and grabbed the phone herself and relayed the information to the person on the other end.

"Sad," the girl beside him whispered, drawing Touma's attention to her, "they're all so… so sad." Touma sighed and looked down at the girl in question, she really should've gone straight to the hospital but for some reason she refused to do so; she wanted to stay at the epic-center a little longer.

"That's what happens when you lose someone precious," Touma finally replied as calmly as he could, slouching against the back of the ambulance. Mai blinked slowly, her fingers tightening around the woolen blanket that was wrapped around her protectively.

"Someone… precious" she repeated slowly, numbly, "Onee-sama… was she… precious… to you?" After Touma and Mai were freed from the cage, it was revealed that Mai's skull was fractured dangerously close to her eye (She might lose it), her collar bone was broken, her right ribcage had three minor fractures and one break, her left shin was fractured with three ripped tendons and five torn muscles.

"She is… was… a friend," he answered, still numb from the night before. As it turned out, Touma suffered from a broken leg (something he didn't realize right away), a fractured shoulder blade, bruised ribs, and a possible concussion; not to mention the hundreds of scraps and bruises covering his body.

"Why?" she whispered, sounding broken, "Why did she… Onee-sama… she took Mai's place." He didn't know how to respond, how was he supposed to tell her that some people are worth dying for? Even the psychotic priestess he lived with knew what grief was and how to deal with it, he's never had to explain something so complicated before…

"That's what big sister's do," he looked up at the soft voice, staring dully at the brunet Anti-skill officer calmly pressing an ice pack to his bruised fist; he hadn't noticed that he was making a fist with his still broken hand. "That's what it means to be the first born…" the woman tried to smile at them but it looked like she was fighting not to cry.

"You protect your siblings no matter what."

…

* * *

…

"I don't understand," Accelerator sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I saw the clone use the railgun against her."

"And I'm telling you for the last damn time that it wasn't the railgun!" The woman huffed at him, she pulled back from the bed where Mikoto Misaka laid unconscious and vulnerable; her face glowing a faint crimson and clammy from sickness. "You see this spider web mark here?" the woman asked, gesturing almost angrily to the near perfect spider-web replication of dried, fried, cracked flesh on the teen's left side, "that's the effect of close proximity to the Railgun. This here," she pointed to an almost perfect looking circle on Mikoto's left arm, near her shoulder were the clone's 'railgun' slammed into her, "Is not the same. This is where the clone's attack hit her, yes?"

"Yes," Accelerator drawled lazily, "so if it wasn't the railgun, what was it?"

"She's a low level electro master right?" The woman asked, crossing her arms and glaring at him, "Surly a 'genius' like you can figure it out."

"…don't call me that," Accelerator warned lowly, his crimson eyes narrowing into a glare at the woman

"Have you figured it out or do I have to draw you a picture?" the woman asked, dismissing his order with a wave of her hand, as if she wasn't afraid of his power or the fact that he could kill her with next to no effort.

"…Electro-masters can magnetize just about anything metallic," Accelerator commented to himself, leaning back in his chair to observe Mikoto thoughtfully. "Her clone is nowhere near as strong as her so… she shot that nail at her," he gestured to Mikoto with a sweep of his hand, "I fail to see how that wasn't the railgun."

"You're hopeless," the woman groaned, pinching the bridge of her own nose. "The railgun takes a small object and forces it to move under immense speed and heat, which gives it a sonic boom, a crimson color and damn near untraceable with the naked eye."

"And?" Accelerator drawled

"The clone doesn't have that kind of fire power," the woman waved a hand at the unconscious form of the original. "Even she didn't achieve a true railgun until she was level five. What the clone did, what you saw, was the clone using some electricity to move the magnetized rail-nail to get in the way of the true railgun and protect the original. By doing this it wasn't actually the nail that hit her but the blast of the two 'bullets', as you call them, clashing and exploding on impact." Accelerator stared dully at the woman as she cocked a hip and placed her left hand on it, "I'm sure there's evidence of a rail-nail and half melted coin molded together at the scene."

"And if there is?" Accelerator asked, starting to feel curious with the conversation so far

"Well that depends on what you want to do with her," the woman gestured to Mikoto again, "Obviously you want to save her life or else you wouldn't have brought her to me."

"Obviously," Accelerator snorted, "Who else could heal the original other than the woman who single handily created the twenty thousand Misaka clones?" it was true, the woman standing beside Mikoto was on the team that single handily come up with the correct ratio to create a living—and lasting—clone, using Mikoto Misaka was just a bonus to her, "isn't that right, Misaka Misuzu?"

"…Don't you dare tell her," the woman replied coldly, crossing her thin arms; amber eyes glaring down at Accelerator in a mixture of misery and fury.

"Tell her what?" Accelerator smirked back, unperturbed by the positively lethal glare the grown up version of Mikoto gave him, "Oh~ you mean you don't want me to tell your daughter, Mikoto, that you are the source for all the pain and trouble she's gone through to protect those clones that _you_ created?" Misuzu glared down at Accelerator, her own power sparking off her and making her chest nut hair begin to rise in agitation and annoyance.

"Don't forget _boy_ ," Misuzu hissed, "I am the reason your _mate_ was even born and the reason she still breaths."

"Oh I won't forget," Accelerator drawled calmly, "I knew there was no way you could possibly kill off your own child. After all there is a difference between the clones and the original, no matter how small the details are." Misuzu stared down at accelerator, weighing the pros and cons of electrocuting the steal chair he sat in, before she let out a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of her nose.

"You like skating on thin ice don't you?"

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 11**


	5. Chapter 5

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 5: possibilities

Koomahana

2.3 million Divided by 80 percent equals: 2,875,000

2, 875,000 Divided by 60 percent equals: 1,725,000

1,725,000 divided by 20 percent equals: 345,000

345,000 divided by 40 percent equals: 138,000

138,000 Divided by 9 percent equals: 12,420

12,420 Divided by 6 percent equals: 745

745 Divided by 3 percent equals: 22.35

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

' _There are 2.3 million people in Academy City; eighty percent of the populace are students. twenty percent_ _of them are_ _espers, of that twenty percent only sixty percent of it is Level zeros; the remaining forty percent are Level ones and twos. Nine percent are level threes, six percent are level fours. The highest level of espers is the level five, of which there are only seven living level fives in all of Academy city. Of those 'twenty percent Esper children' in Academy City, it was discovered that the six most common abilities are: Electro-master, Earth Palette, Psychokinesis, Psychometry, Telekinesis, and some form of mind control. Each with an average of five to ten percent of the Esper population; with only electro-master holding the highest amount of users—fifteen percent._ _The rarer abilities in Academy City are…'_

…

 _I don't care!_ Aiho growled under breath as she continued scrolling through the Academy City's data bank, purple eyes hard and searching as she continued searching for information. It had been decided that a bloody scrap of gray cloth wasn't a clue to Mikoto Misaka's death but a hint of her survival; after all, no one had actually found her body and they were all proceeding as they would in a kidnap scenario.

For all they knew, that's exactly what's going on

…

' _AIM Stalker, Far Vision, Flux Coat, Mental Out, Offense Armor…rarely make it past level one or two…. one level four of AIM Stalker, Offense Armor and Predator… One Level Five Mental Out… Level three of Flux Coat…_

 _The Seven Level Fives that Academy City dose have are the following (each in their respective rank):_

 _Accelerator (Name unknown)_

 _Dark matter (Kaikin Teitoku)_

 _Electro-Mistress (Misaka Mikoto)_

…

 _Misaka Mikoto,_ Aiho paused, her head snapping up to look at the slowly growing crowd of Tokiwadai students, each dressed in their identical uniform. The growing crowd of girls was almost unmanageable, however they did seem to take point from Kuroko Shirai; the red head who was both best friends and roommate with the famed Railgun of Tokiwadai. It was no longer just Judgment officers and Anti-skill working to find the missing brunet, hundreds of level three and four girls had traveled almost half way across the city to get to distract seventeen and help search for their missing class mate.

"Captain Yomikawa!" She snapped around to look at the one calling her; it was the same Telekinesis user as before, Akira. The boy had cleaned himself up some but not enough to hide the bruises and scrapes from his efforts of lifting the metal orb from the previous day.

"It's you," Aiho grumbled, lowering her information pad to look at the high scholar, "What is it?"

"…uh I left for a little while," Akira lowered his eyes as if in shame, "did those kids… were they seriously hurt?"

"Take a look for yourself," Aiho smirked, turning to look back at the group of Tokiwadai students, beside Kuroko stood a stiff Touma and a blank-faced Mai. "Mai said that with your efforts they were able to get something under the orb, just enough to keep air flowing in so they wouldn't suffocate."

"R-really?" Akira blinked, staring at the two teens in questioned, relief filling him at the prospect of their survival, even more when he learned that he was able to help them survive. "I'm glad…" Aiho studied the boy for a moment before she took a deep breath and raised her iPad, scanning the contents.

"Hay kid I've got a question," Aiho spook up, drawing the teen's attention to herself, "Do you know anyone with Precognition or any variations of it?"

"I know a Clairvoyant," he answered, "her name is Konori Mii, she's right over there." Aiho looked in the direction he was pointing, her purple eyes narrowed in thought as she stared at the navy haired teen, who was busy directing the older and more experienced Judgment officers.

"I wasn't aware she had an ability," Aiho said softly. It was true, all of her interactions with the young woman were over the phone, typically with that younger girl working behind a computer, digging up information she needed. Aiho only knew Konori knew Kuroko because she herself has had contact with Kuroko and knew that both the red head and Konori were a part of the 177th branch district. 177th judgment branch was one of the biggest pains in her life other, half the time she believed that the judgment officers of that branch purposefully wrecked her life just to keep her from home.

"Oh yeah Mii-chan is the highest ranked Clairvoyant in Academy City," Akira chuckled, "She also has one hell of a sixth sense."

"…wouldn't that be her esper ability?" Aiho asked with deadpan expression

"Hmm? Oh right, I guess you could say it's her seventh sense then," the boy chuckled to himself, "She doesn't use her ability recklessly like some would. She actually doesn't like using it because it's really hard for her to control, sometimes she sees things too far out and sometimes she zooms in on things to close."

"How is that a part of her 'extra sense'?" Aiho asked with a ticking eyebrow, "quite confusing me and spit it out already!"

"Oh, sorry, sorry!" the boy raised his hands peacefully, leaning a little back from Aiho with a slightly scared expression. "Mii-chan… you see she just knows people. She always seems to knows who's a threat and who's not, like she can take one look at someone and know if they're going to cause trouble."

"I see," Aiho looked back at the navy haired teen, watching her approach with a mask of determination on her face.

"Akira!" Mii called, her voice hard and clear, nearly echoing throughout the Switchyard, "You're with me!"

"Yes ma'am!" the teen beside Aiho snickered, he smiled at the Anti-skill officer with a playful wink before he spun on his heal and walked away with Mii in front of him.

 _Konori Mii huh,_ Aiho thought, watching the two walk away, _it just might be worth it to be with them_

She had the feeling the high scholars were going to uncover something important

…

* * *

…

She let her fingers dance across two keyboards while her black eyes jumped across three different monitors; each rolling throw ten pages on the internet, each page as different and unique as the next. She's searched anything regarding her ability but she's only found the same thing again and again: Thermal hand, also known as 'Fixed Temperature Preservation', allows one person to conserve part of an object's temperature with a touch. She got dictionary form when she looked for Thermal, however that did lead to the searches for Thermodynamics, thermometer (She felt rather dumb looking that one up), thermonuclear, and thermoplastic. Though ultimately the searches were useless in regards to her ability, they did help her understand more about what she could do if she bothered to train in her ability and not in her computer skills.

Thermal—making use of, producing, or caused by heat (She could control anything related to temperature)

Thermodynamics—physics involving the relations of heat with mechanical forms of energy (she could cool machinery and create or nullify flames)

Thermometer—an instrument for measuring temperature (they were used all the time in her tests)

Thermonuclear—of or derived from the fusion of atomic nuclei at high temperatures or the energy so produced (2nd definition) of atomic weapons based on nuclear fusion (that's only slightly terrifying)

Thermoplastic—soft and pliable when heated but hard when cooled (if she could up her level and then get her hands on the military version, she could use it to her advantage)

In other words, if she stopped to train she could make her power grow to be as dangerous as Mikoto's… Or it could destroy her before she got that strong. As far as she could tell she was a level one, the basic form of 'thermal' so if she took those 'abilities' and put them into terms of levels…

Level One would be the basic Thermal usage (where she's at)

Level Two would be similar to Thermodynamics, only she would have to affect a large area with her ability, possibly the weaker metals or creating heat waves

Level Three would be the usage of Thermoplastic and being able to use it without touching it or melting stronger metals like gold and silver, melting cement or maybe creating mirages, etc.

Level Four… maybe that would be something like affecting a large area's temperature, like making summers have record breaking heat scores? She'd have to stop and think about that one… maybe she could reverse the rising of heat and make it cooler? But if she could do that… anything related to heat would be under her control...

(And just because she's terrified of the mere thought of it)

Level Five would have to be Thermonuc—

"Uiharu Kazari? Is Miss Uiharu Kazari here?" she shut down her screens, jumped to her feet and stood at attention just steps away from her corner of the Judgment office

"I'm Uiharu Kazari," Uiharu answered quickly, stepping forward and eyeing the strange man standing in the door way to the cramped office, "May I ask who you are?"

"Ah, I'm from the Mail delivery team," he sounded hesitant, like he wasn't sure what to do now that he knows someone's in the room.

"I can see that sir," Uiharu smiled patiently at him, "I asked for you name sir."

"Oh uh…" he hesitated again and Uiharu took half a step back, purposefully leaning against the short wall separating her 'office' from Kuroko's. As agreed when she entered the branch, each 'cubical' had an emergency button hidden just out of sight. They were supposed to be under one's desk but Uiharu had a backup button sitting just behind the file cabinet beside the edge of the wall to her cubical; it was out of sight but had easy access so long as she stood beside the cabinet. Both Kuroko and Mii knew about the button and had agreed that it was a good safety precaution; after all they might not have enough time to reach their desk to alarm everyone.

"It's Ao," the man answered finally, Uiharu didn't believe him, "I'm Ao Konori, it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Konori?" Uiharu couldn't help but question in surprise; he seemed to stiffen a little at the name, as if he thought he might've made a mistake. "…Okay then," Uiharu smiled at him, she tapped the button and walked forward calmly, "It's nice to meet you Konori-san. How can I help you today?"

…

* * *

…

Misuzu closed her eyes and concentrated closely on her daughter's electrical current circulating through her head. For some strange reason, she had the feeling that something wasn't flowing right, like there was a block of electrical current somewhere in the back of the girl's mind.

 _What is this?_ Misuzu thought, her brow's pinching together as she envisioned herself entering her child's mind, searching for that strange feeling of 'blockage'.

"Oi Misaka-sensei!" she flinched at the rude voice, interrupting her work and distracting her from her task, "Are you done examining her yet? It's been a day, they're going to start looking for her body soon"

"Will you shut up you pesky little boy?" Misuzu growled lowly, turning to glare over her shoulder at Accelerator as he stared dully right back at her, as if he was unconcerned with her actions. "I'm busy making sure her mind isn't permanently damaged! Did you have to hit her so hard? You could've killed her!"

"But I didn't," Accelerator drawled uncaringly, "Is she going to live?"

"Yes," Misuzu answered as if she was insulted by the question

"Is her brain in complete working order?" Accelerator asked curiously, "it'd be a real drag if she'd ended up being stuck in a wheelchair and unable to communicate for the red of her life."

"You'd have only your self to thank," Misuzu snorted in dismissal, "if you're so worried, why did you hit her?"

"did you want her dead?" Accelerator asked with a sneer; however Misuzu seemed to sense something beneath his contempt and carefully rising anger and saw through his carefully placed shield.

"…Your worry is unfounded she's perfectly healthy," Misuzu sighed, pulling back to look down at the fever stricken face of her child. "The part of her brain dedicated to motor function is unharmed… but…" Accelerator stilled at the soft whisper, his eyes narrowing into thin slits.

"But?" he prompted, unsure if he was going to like what the woman was going to say next

"…a small fraction of her brain dedicated to memory… it's damaged," Misuzu informed him, not daring to show him her face, knowing her thoughts were written all over it. "…she might have amnesia."

" _I wish I never met you!"_

"…how bad?" Accelerator asked, leaning back in his seat as he observed the statue still mother

"Just a small fraction," Misuzu answered, "nothing lasting, I doubt anything more than a day was erased."

"…could it be selective memory loss?" Accelerator asked, trying to keep his memory from the fight at bay, he didn't need it surfacing now of all times—not in front of this very dangerous woman.

"…I don't know," Misuzu answered honestly, "We won't know until she wakes up. Either way, there's no longer any reason to keep her here. You can take her to the nearest hospital tonight"

"You won't continue her treatment?" Accelerator asked, mildly surprised by the information

"…have you forgotten boy?" Misuzu asked, rising from her seat and heading towards the door without looking at the young albino, "Misuzu Misaka is a level zero civilian with no history nor reason to reside within the boundaries of Academy city."

"…so you're not supposed to be here," Accelerator drawled, watching the woman silently walk past, crimson eyes clued to that half-hearted smile created from self-loathing. "…if you're not supposed to be here… why are you?"

"Now then," Misuzu paused in front of the door, her voice sounding slightly amused but surprisingly bland of emotion, "isn't that an interesting question." The door closed and the woman was gone, leaving Accelerator to his thoughts and memories

' _Interesting question', huh?_ Accelerator thought as he rose to his feet and took Misuzu's previous seat beside Mikoto. _So then… even you don't know why you reside here in this city of steal and ice…_ And as he had been fighting for the past hour, Accelerator's memories came flooding back, filling his mind with the remnants of the night of the day before last.

…

" _Look out!" Mikoto screamed, her eyes wide, one hand outstretched towards them_

"… _Equals boom," Accelerator relaxed his stance slightly, watching the flower dust brush the edge of Mikoto's electricity. The ground shook, the air trembled, the sound traveled throughout all of Academy City, the darkness was chased away with a pillar of echoing orange flames and the stars were hidden behind a thick veil of onyx smoke and yellow light._

 _Of course he was flying through the air faster than the spark could become a flame. Accelerator tackled Mikoto, pining her to the ground just as the last of the contorted boxcar finished forming and a wave of fire washed over them. It took more effort than he thought it would but Accelerator was able to keep back the fire that tried to consume them, protecting them both from the main blast. Once he felt that the majority of the fire was away from them, he counted to ten and lifted his head and stared down into a pair of terrified amber orbs._

" _Why?" Mikoto asked, whisper soft, "Why did you save me?"_

"… _Is there a reason why I shouldn't have?" Accelerator asked, shifting slightly so not all of his weight was crushing her_

" _Yes," She answered as if he just did something stupid, "you've killed ten thousand of my sisters! You've tried to kill me! Why save me now?! What makes me so different from them?!" he continued to stare into her eyes, trying to figure out how he could twist his actions and her words together just enough to keep her from guessing the truth of his actions._

 _In the end, the truth was all he could come up with_

" _It's simple," Accelerator sighed, moving one arm to lift a part of his shirt, purposefully placing his mark over hers. In the blink of an eye, they weren't laying on gravel in the middle of a fire storm; they were standing at arm's length in a world that seemed to have been created from ice shards and reflected light._

" _Well now… I've heard of mates reading each other's minds but I never believed in it," Accelerator commented as he looked around himself, studying the shards of ice and snow and how each piece seemed to reflect some sort of golden light that he couldn't find the source of._

" _What are you talking about?" Mikoto asked gruffly, "where are we? What happened to the switchyard? What did you do?"_

" _Me? I didn't do anything," Accelerator corrected quickly, "and what part of 'mates' did you happen to not understand?"_

" _The whole thing!" Mikoto snapped red faced, "I've never heard of 'mates reading each other's minds', so why don't you stop beating around the bush and fill me in already!"_

" _Are you seriously that unobservant?" he asked, looking at her in disbelief, "what is the definition of 'mate'?" Accelerator watched in some surprise as various images flared into being just behind the girl standing opposite of him._ _He_ _watched as at first the image of matching cups flared into being, quickly followed by the faces of a twins that Mikoto knew, a pair of matching necklaces… wedding wings… a couple…_

"… _Just who are you calling a mate?" Mikoto asked, as if realization was slowly dawning on her but she was trying desperately to fight the realization with every bit of hateful knowledge she knew of him._

" _Who do you think I'm calling mate?" Accelerator asked, "Come now you're not that dumb. You're the only other person here, so who else could I be talking about?" the images of the first fight she saw him take part in burst into being behind her, he watched in amazement as the leg she found gleamed eerily in the moonlight, the blood shinning blindingly bright in the reflected light. The blank but calm face of the clone just before she was crushed by the railcar, the fight she had with the clone over a little pin she placed on the girl just hours before her death._

" _Rationalizing my actions isn't going to make it any easier," Accelerator drawled, glancing behind himself as he watched his own memory bloom into being. "I assume this image is familiar to you?" he heard Mikoto gasp and step back at the illusion overly dramatized for her benefit, every detail in stark-perfect clarity. From a distance the image would be that of_ _a_ _hurricane or black whole shooting out bursts of electricity from its twisted and almost perfectly circular center. However, up close it could be reasoned that it looked much more like a flower spinning, it's 'stamens' looked jagged and half formed or even broken, jerking out of the center like sharp lines. It's 'petals' were bent and curved gracefully, it's edges blurred as if there were too many petals to truly draw all and have the same graceful effect._

 _It was a flower but a hurricane, a black hole but a tornado…_

" _Where did you get that?" Mikoto asked sharply, a mixture of fury, surprise and something like fear etching itself through her voice, as if she wasn't sure what she should be feeling_

" _Where do you think?" Accelerator asked, beginning to tire from the game of questions. "From my hip of course," he turned to face her and lifted his shirt up just enough to show her his own mark, right above his right hip bone. Automatically Mikoto hissed and drew back from him, her hands instantly slapping over her own mark, distrust and disbelief glared back at him like daggers piercing his body._

" _You know the significance of matching marks right?" Accelerator asked, "I really_ _shouldn't_ _have to explain everything to you." He watched as another memory bloomed behind Mikoto, her friends had discussed 'soulmate' marks the previous week, they giggled and laughed as they each discussed what the significance of the uniqueness to each mark meant._

" _Ah~ so you do know, good I don't have to—"_

" _Shut up!" Mikoto screamed, her power blooming into being, setting her skin aglow like moonlight and snow, arcing off her like the lightning it resembled. "I hate you!" it arced towards him, like blasts of highly concentrated energy as large as most baseballs_

" _Oi are you insane?!" Accelerator asked sharply, quickly dodging the blast of baseball shaped electricity, "this is our mind! You damage this place and we could both die!"_

" _I wish I never met you!" Mikoto screamed, tears filling her eyes as she let out one final blast of electricity. The blast was so strong that it broke their connection and_ _Accelerator_ _was forced to physically jump away from Mikoto's body before it was enveloped in electricity. As quickly as they had entered their shared mind, they were back in reality, surrounded by fire, ash and blood._

" _You really are an idiot," Accelerator panted, sliding to a stop amongst the red hot coals of the quickly melting gravel._

" _I HATE YOU!" She sent another wave of electricity at him, sending anything else she could reach along the current aimed for him. Mikoto gasped as suddenly he was behind her, she felt a pressure on her neck, her power ceased its charge and her world filled with an endless black mist._

" _Idiot,"_

…

Accelerator blinked and realized that the sun was setting once again, another day had came and went with Mikoto Misaka still sleeping like a log. She didn't even twitch throughout the two days that she had been resting in this small room hidden away in the forgotten woods of district four. He took a deep breath and rose to his feet, as smooth and as graceful as water, Accelerator calmly shut down the heart monitor and unhooked every cord and string attached to his soulmate. Just as smoothly and carefully, he bent and lifted the limp form of Mikoto and straightened, his crimson eyes staring down at her fever-red face impassively.

Whether or not she remembers it, she'll get her wish

…

* * *

…

Aiho followed Mii and Akira calmly, her radio ringing only a few times to alert her to local finds here and there, mostly of large pools of blood and railcars that appeared to have a body slammed into them at one point or another. As the hours slowly ticked by like seconds, Aiho observed how little by little the switchyard began to slowly regain its original appearance and yet still retrain that aura of a battle gone horribly wrong. As sunset made itself known for all to see, Aiho finally noticed just how pale Mii looked and how Akira kept himself within arm's length of her. It didn't take the Anti-skill captain long to realize that Mii had been using her powers almost none stop to search the wreckage for any clues about Mikoto Misaka. With their seemingly endless amount of walking with little to no stops, Aiho knew that the young woman was starting to tire from the use of her ability.

Why else would Akira keep himself so close to her?

"Let's take a rest," Aiho ordered, stopping dead in her tracks. Mii snapped around, a frustration and alarm twisting her pretty features, her mouth opening to counter Aiho's demand. "We've circled the Switchyard nearly twenty times now" Aiho interrupted, already knowing what Mii was going to say "We all need a rest and recuperate."

"So why don't we lend you a hand?" Aiho straightened at the bland sounding voice and turned to look behind herself. Behind her almost a dozen steps stood four high school girls, one of whom she imminently recognized.

"Mugino Shizuri" Aiho commented dryly, "you're a level Five esper as well, the famed Meltdowner."

"Hmm? You know me?" Mugino asked, tilting her head to the side curiously

"For this assignment I figured it would be best to do my homework," Aiho replied calmly, "According to the information I've gathered you and the railgun don't exactly get along. Why are you here?"

"Misaka Mikoto and I go back a-ways," Mugino smirked, placing a hand on her hip, "We have unfinished business. I would hate for it to remain unfinished because she just so happen to have gotten squished because none of you could get the debris off her in time."

"I'm a level three Telekinesis user," Akira spoke up, "I'm here for a reason."

"And I told you mine," Mugino smiled back, something cruel and dark barely hidden beneath surface, "What is yours?"

"She's important to a friend of mine," Akira calmly answered, "Since you have no real reason for being here why don't you go ahead and leave?"

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 10**


	6. Chapter 6

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 6: hospitals and memories

Koomahana

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

Mugino stared impassively at three standing in front of her, Frenda stood just behind her, her fists clenched her eyes narrowed into a glare. To Akira it appeared as if the tiny blond was ready to throw something life-threatening at him, her blue eyes blazing a furious but beautiful sapphire.

…

" _I can't belief you two are actually…" Mugino trailed off as she stopped walking, brown eyes locked onto the street T.V. depicting the latest news broad cast. An image of a familiar looking electro master stationed beside the woman speaking, a trail of information was rolling across the bottom of the screen. It wasn't long before the screen flashed and sires of images replaced the Anker-woman, dozens of pictures of a chuckling teen and a few pictures of a cute elementary student laughing with a blinding smile._

" _Mugino!" Frenda called with a welcoming smile, "What are you doing? Huh?" Frenda turned to observe the large screen almost curiously, "aw~ someone else took care of her!"_

" _So the Railgun is dead?" Rikou asked dully, staring passively at the screen, "Strange… her AIM field is still dispersed around the city…"_

" _What? You mean she's still alive?" Frenda asked with a hand on her hip and a raised eyebrow_

" _She's talking about the clones," Mugino drawled lazily, brown eyes still clued to the screen, watching as a video of a laughing nine year old Mikoto danced onto the screen. "Remember? I told you about the level 6 shift project as well as the sister's experiment"_

" _Well yeah but," Frenda tilted her head to the side in confusion, "what does that have to do with the Railgun's AIM field surrounding the city?"_

" _Her clones are still living," Rikou calmly informed her blond teammate, "They all share the same AIM field as the 'original'."_

" _Oh I get it," Frenda smiled, only to realize something else, making her face blink into an expression of worry and confusion, "Rikou-chan… does that mean you can't tell the difference between the clones and the original?"_

" _Of course I can tell the difference," Rikou answered calmly, "her clones aren't even a percentage of her real power so their AIM fields aren't going to match up with her own."_

" _Mugino," Saiai called softly, "Is there something super wrong? You look super concentrated on that video…"_

"… _nothing," Mugino whispered, her voice horse, "it's… its nothing…"_

" _It doesn't appear to be nothing," Rikou commented evenly, "You look like you saw a ghost."_

" _I said it's nothing so it's nothing!" Mugino snapped coldly, her hand fisting into her hair as she glared furiously at her teammates, "Drop it!"_

" _Okay!" her friends agreed quickly, each looking pale and afraid themselves, Rikou seemingly the calmest of the three_

…

 _Mugino doesn't like her toys being taken away,_ Frenda thought as she stole a glance at her team leader, wondering if everything was truly okay.

"Rikou!" Mugino snapped coldly, "Can you feel her here?"

"I've searched while you spoke," Rikou answered coldly, "She isn't here."

"What are you talking about?" Aiho asked with a raised eyebrow, "None of you have moved in the past two minutes, how could you have possibly searched one-hundred ackers by yourself without moving?"

"Rikou is a level four AIM Stalker," Mugino answered, "Her range is infinite. She can follow anyone throughout all of academy city, the provinces surrounding it, the countries surrounding them and so on—she has no limit to the distance she can find her target."

"And all she has to do is meet her target!" Frenda smiled innocently

"Guess she's useless if she hasn't met them hah?" Mii asked, staring tiredly, and in announce, at the four high scholars in front of her.

"You're assuming we've never met the famed Railgun before!" Frenda replied with a wicked looking smile, "Belief me four-eyes! We've all met her~! We've even battled with her! We know her powers better than you!" Mii's eyes narrowed dangerously at the blond, giving the slightly younger girl a feeling that she just went too far—like she just about to get punished by Mugino.

"I suggest you shut up now girl," Akira said as he took a protective step in front of Mii, "I wouldn't anger Konori Mii if I were you."

"Konori Mii?" Mugino repeated in mild surprise, "Ah~ so that's why you've all been wondering around these ruins looking like lost kittens. She's been doing all the looking for you!" Mii's eyes narrowed again but this time they locked wirily onto Mugino, as if she had yet to decide to run or fight and was still trying to decide.

"Don't look at me like that little Miss. Far Vision," Mugino smirked at her, "They say Far Vision and Clairvoyance are linked by a single thread. Does that mean you can tell the future~?"

"No," Mii answered firmly, "Whatever rumors you've heard they're most certainly…" Mii wavered, her sight tripling, "… f… fa… lse…"

"MII!" Akira shouted his eyes wide and his hand out stretched barely in time to catch her with his ability.

"That was close," Aiho commented softly, hurrying towards the two high scholars, "She's out cold…"

"Figures," Akira sighed, turning and lifting Mii higher into the air, "one hour is her max for constant use."

"How long has she been using it?" Aiho asked as Akira carefully pulled Mii into his arms

"…she's been going constant use for the past hour and a half," Akira answered, adjusting to Mii's weight before he turned to examine the completely unimpressed team standing passively behind them. "…what you learned here goes unsaid, understand?"

"Who are you to give us orders?" Frenda asked rudely, feeling insulted by the demand

"I'm Akira Toshigawa," Akira answered coldly, turning on his heal and walking away. "I'm a level three telekinesis user."

"…lier," Rikou said softly, watching the brunet walk away with the anti-skill officer beside him

"You know him Rikou?" Mugino asked, glancing back at the brunet

"Akira Toshigawa feels different," Rikou answered, voice and face as blank as a sheet of paper, "That boy is his twin brother: Satoshi Toshigawa. He's a level four telekinesis… he can lift anything and everything within one-hundred feet of his position. It is said that he is constantly creating something new with his ability…"

"…If that's the case… why isn't he a level five?" Frenda asked, "With that kind of power… why is he a level four still?"

"Because," Rikou spun on her heal and started walking in the opposite direction, "He can only use it for ten minutes, any longer than that and he's putting his life on the line."

"I see," Mugino whispered, glancing back at 'Akira' and the Anti-skill officer before she followed Rikou to the closest exit of the destroyed railcar maze

…

* * *

…

Next day

…

* * *

…

He hurried through the halls, his eyes wide and his breathe coming in short, quick gasps. The siren seemed to scream loudly in his mind, the voice over the intercom echoing in his ears, threatening to break his concentration as he ran from sector to sector. With a screech from the soles of his shoes, he came to an almost abrupt halt in the icy-white halls of his hospital, as fast as he stopped he turned and started running again down a new hall. It took him only moments to reach the information desk he was searching for, three nurses watched wide eyes as he slid to a stop in front of them.

"Screw polices!" He ordered sharply, "Call Anti-skill now! Tell them we've found Mikoto Misaka!"

"Y-yes Doctor Frogman!" one nurse stuttered as she quickly picked up the phone and started dialing the emergency number, leaving one of the others to tend to the old man as he collapsed at their station. "Hello? Anti-skill branch 73? Yes, hello, I need to be patched into the one in charge of Mikoto Misaka's case imminently please."

"Give me that!" Frogman grouched rudely, a first in his thirty years of working there, "Hello? Patch me in to Officer Aiho Yomikawa! Immanently!"

"He's in a panic," one of the nurses murmured

"I've never seen him so worked up," whispered another

"Don't question me boy!" Frogman snapped, "I said _NOW_!"

"He raised his voice!" the previous nurse gasped

"I've never heard him do that before," gossiped another

"'Is there a problem here?' Mai askes with interest as she observes the panicked doctor in front of her," everyone turned to see three young girls standing side by side, each as identical as the next.

"Mai-chan," one of the nurses greeted

"Ah! You three!" Frogman snapped towards them, the phone forgotten in his hand, "Is one of you near Miss Aiho Yomikawa?"

"Yes," the center clone agreed tonelessly

"Tell her we've found Mikoto Misaka," Frogman ordered before the clones could continue in their strange speaking habits, "Someone brought her in!"

…

* * *

…

"You seem disdainfully passive," His eye twitched at the bland voice, he didn't need to turn around to know that it was Misuzu who spoke.

"What do you want?" Accelerator asked, glaring out the window

"…You let her out," Misuzu observed calmly, "I was sure you'd use her amnesia to your advantage."

"Just what are you talking about?" Accelerator asked, not turning in his seat

"…hmm," Misuzu observed him silently, seconds turned into minutes and suddenly the darkness outside seemed as endless and final as the level six shift project. "…you truly did value her didn't you?"

"…Her wish was granted"

"Her wish?" Misuzu asked curiously

"…she never wanted to meet me"

 _Ouch,_ Misuzu thought, her lips twisting into a frown, _that had to have hurt… even for someone as cold as you_

For some reason, she felt proud of her daughter

…

* * *

…

A few days later

…

* * *

…

The world surrounding her was mind numbingly dark, chillingly silent and her body felt like led; as if it could shatter into dust or sink to the bottom of the deepest ocean. She was warm but cold at the same time, like she was missing a finger or possibly a limb… maybe she wasn't _that_ damaged. Maybe she was just missing her blankets? It would explain why she was feeling cold… but… what about the feeling of warmth? Where did that come from? Her body? Her mind? Was she imagining it?

She took a deep breath and opened her eyes, staring dully at the sapphire washed ceiling high overhead. The darkness overhead was shaped like sharp angles, colored a deep lifeless Navy-black. It was contrasted nicely with even sharper and colder colors of artic blue.

Where was she? What was she doing here? When did she get here? Why was she here? Who was she? How long has she been here?

She felt as if she knew the answers but she couldn't come up with them. No wait, she did know the answers, she was beginning to panic that was why there were so many questions filling her mind. She had to calm down, close her eyes again, concentrate on her breathing, and slow her heart rate down. She could do this; she just had to calm down…

 _One-two-three, four, five,_ she silently told herself that was too fast and she had to slow it down further, _six, seven… eight… nine… ten… eleven… twelve… thir~teen… four~teen… fi~fteen… si~xteen… se~ve~nteen… ei~ghteen… ni~neteen… twenty…_

With another deep breath she opened her eyes to stare at the pale ceiling overhead; she could do this, she was calm enough now

 _Where was she?_

She pushed herself up, her arms trembling as she tried to get a better look at her surroundings. Once she was able to actually sit up completely, she was panting heavily, her side feeling as if it was on fire, her eyes swimming in tears she refused to shed. Okay, she sat up, now she had to look around herself and see if she was able to recognize her surroundings. To her left was a large monitor that appeared to be softly beeping in tune to her heart, the wiggly lines moving up and down on its surface wiggled in tune to the beeping. There was also a tall, thin metal thing with wheels at the bottom and two colorless bags hanging from the top, both of which appeared to be attached to her left arm. Just in front of the monitor and wrack was an empty black chair, and thee windows sitting a good five paces from her bed—one of them was open; letting in enough of a cold breeze to shift the pale and almost see-through curtains. Beyond the windows was what she could only assume to be a bright and bustling city, even swallowed in darkness it was vibrating with lights and noises, she could almost feel the sparks in the air forming spastically beyond the window. To her right there was… a girl with long red hair bent over her bed, one hand clasped tightly around her right hand; well… that explained why she was unable to move that arm. Beyond the girl in the black seat was a small glass table top, a couch with a small body laying on it, a strange picture of a forest path sat on the wall above the couch-turned-bed, and what appeared to be a hall; she guessed it led out of the room. As far as she could tell it was a normal looking room but the monitor, bland curtains swinging beside the windows and the pale yellow one barely tucked out of sight beside her bed, the wrack with the clear bags that were attached to her arm- all screamed hospital.

 _What was she doing here?_

Her side still burned and her arm felt next to useless. She looked down at it and saw that she wasn't even in a hospital garb, they left her in tight bandages that were wrapped from her shoulder to her hip and her arm was wrapped snuggly as well. As she continued to stare lifelessly at the bandages, she quickly noticed that something warm and sticky was starting to spread across their surface, the almost sweet smell it gave off told her it was blood. She was hurt and judging by the amount of bandages she was hurt pretty bad, bad enough that her wounds still bled even though she only sat up.

 _When did she get here?_

She tried to remember what happened, how she got hurt but nothing was coming to mind. That was a little scary; knowing she had gotten hurt but unable to name the person who hurt her or even the cause for the damage she was in wasn't really something she thought she could forget. Who would forget the person who put them in the hospital?

 _Why was she here?_

Obviously because she was hurt—bad enough to need medical attention

 _How long has she been here?_

That was a good question, judging by the red head's rumbled appearance, she'd been in the room for a while

 _Who was she?_

Now she just felt stupid

Her name was Misaka Mikoto, the third ranked level five in academy city, she was-is an electro-master, the strongest in all of academy City (She quickly imagined her left finger tips sparking lightly with her ability. She sighed when they hummed silently and gave off two little sparks that confirmed her slowly tickling back memory.). She was fourteen years old, She attended Tokiwadai Middle school and was assigned to class 2 B, Her roommate was Kuroko Shirai; she was one year younger than her but managed to replace her previous roommate—legally of course.

Her friends were Uiharu Kazari, Saten Ruiko, Konori Mii and Kuroko Shirai

Uiharu and Kuroko were both judgment officers

Kuroko was a level four teleporter and Uiharu was a level one… she couldn't remember what talent Uiharu had, did she know but forgot?

Ruiko was a level zero but in the level upper incident the previous (month? Too long, week? Too short,) she showed a minor talent for aero hand.

Konori was a level three Clairvoyant, the strongest one in Academy City; she was a judgment officer too… Kuroko's 'teacher' and commander of Uiharu's and Kuroko's 'sect'. Konori was in high school, she didn't know what school though, about sixteen or seventeen years old.

Kuroko… Kuroko was Kuroko, she knew almost too much about the red head and she wasn't sure to be proud or scared of that fact

"…Onee-sama," her head imminently jerked in the direction of the soft whisper, her eyes widening as she stared at the body laying on the couch. It was quickly revealed to be a girl, a girl with short chestnut hair, dull gray eyes, scarily blank face and dressed in the same rumbled uniform as Kuroko. "'You're awake', Mai notes in satisfaction as she had been unsure if her Onee-sama would do so, so soon."

"…Mai," Mikoto whispered in surprise, "your eye…" the clone blinked and lifted one hand to the bandaged orbit, as if she had forgotten the simple injury.

"10032 will heal with little to no scaring," Mai informed Mikoto as she calmly set her feet on the floor and straightened in her seat. "The Doctor says 10032's eye isn't damage and will return to perfect working order as soon as they remove the bandages. However it is required for 10032 to continue wearing the bandage to safe guard her vision. If it is exposed to too much light or not treated with the utmost care it could become damaged and result in infection or blindness."

"I see," Mikoto sighed, "I'm glad your life isn't in danger." They fell into a comfortable silence, Mikoto returned to staring out the window, unaware that she appeared to be searching or even expecting something to happen.

"Onee-sama / the others" Mai and Mikoto blinked and looked at each other, a slow smile slipped across Mikoto's face

"You first Imoto," Mikoto said, bobbing her head courtly

"…Onee-sama appears to be waiting for something," Mai said calmly, continuing to stare passively at the original, "Is she expecting something to happen to the window?"

"No," Mikoto answered with a soft (sad) smile, returning her attention back to the window, "I was just thinking about the others… are they well?"

"…Onee-sama saved the lives of thirty-two clones who were assigned to the experiment for this month," Mai answered courtly, "Would you like to know their numbers?"

"Not really," Mikoto sighed heavily, leaning back in her bed, "…so… I lost ten thousand of my sisters…"

"…all ten-thousand of us were determined to save Onee-sama," Mai said courtly, as if that was supposed to make a difference, "Onee-sama made all of us worry uselessly over her safety. Each of us had our own turn to watch over you while you slept."

"How long was I out?" Mikoto asked, looking back at Mai curiously

"…one month," Mai answered, as if she didn't like the answer, "it's been one month since Onee-sama ended the level 6 shift project."

"I see," Mikoto sighed, "I'm glad I was able to stop it…"

"Onee-sama is reckless," Mai replied courtly, "Onee-sama shouldn't have put her life on the line to save a clone who's death is nearing."

"…don't say that," Mikoto ordered, looking away from Mai, her lips trembling as she fought to keep herself from crying, "It makes me feel useless… like in the end… I still couldn't save you."

"Onee-sama saved us," Mai said softly, "Onee-sama saved the remaining ten thousand clones from Accelerator's quest for power and—"

"Accelerator?" Mikoto interrupted, looking bewildered at her clone, "Who's that?"

…

* * *

…

" _In more positive news today, the previous comatose Level Five Esper, Mikoto Misaka, woke up this morning,_ " instantly he was sitting up and paying rapid attention to the TV, dark eyes wide as he stared at the softly smiling Anker-woman.

"Touma we're home!" his roommate called as she slammed the dorm room door open, her arms filled with bags, "We finished shopping too!" Index stilled as she saw that Touma wasn't paying attention to her, his eyes were clued to the TV, "Touma?" Index questioned, tilting her head to the side while Aisa stepped past her and into the kitchen, arms full of grocery bags.

"She… she woke up?" Touma whispered, staring wide-eyed at the TV

"…who woke up?" Index asked curiously, waking Touma from his trance

"A friend," Touma answered, pushing himself onto his feet, "the one I've been visiting in the hospital."

"Are you going to see her again today?" Index asked, setting the bag of groceries on the kitchen counter, her attention still glued to Touma

"Yeah," Touma paused at the entrance to his apartment; he turned and looked over his shoulder at Index, "Wanna come?"

"Yes please!" Index cheered, jumping out of the kitchen and following Touma out the door.

"…Good bye," Aisa whispered, staring dully at the door, _I better put everything away…_

…

" _It's reported that there's no permanent damage from the explosion two weeks ago,_ "

 _Of course there's no permanent damage you imbecile!_ Misuzu thought, glaring at her TV

…

" _It is estimated that she'll be discharged approximately three days from now,_ "

Mugino nodded courtly

…

" _As you know Mikoto Misaka has been in a coma for the past two weeks,_ " he stared dully at the Shopping center's TV, watching how it shifted from the Anker-woman to a sneakily taken video of Mikoto smiling in her hospital bed, surrounded by her friends.

…

 _Alright, who do I have to fry for that one?_ Mikoto thought, staring at her hospital TV with a twitching eyebrow, not happy that someone had been able to get video of her in her weakened state.

" _It's been decided by the city council that once she is fully recovered, that Ms. Mikoto Misaka will take an early test to see if she still has all of her powers and remains in the city's seven level five category._ "

… _why do I have a sinking feeling?_

…

" _Moreover, Misaka-san will be tested to see if she still retrains her number three position as a level five…_ "

"…what are we going to do if she fails the test?"

"Have no fear girl, she won't fail," he answered unaffected by the news broad cast, "That girl will prove she is still the third ranked level five of Academy City… and then our plans will continue forward"

"You're not afraid that she'll fail?"

"She won't fail"

"…you're awfully confident of yourself,"

"Why child, I'm not confident in myself," he smirked at her, darkness and evil surrounding him like a cloak of midnight-black cut from purist hatred and misery, "I'm confident in my experiments."

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 10**


	7. Chapter 7

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 7: Release

Koomahana

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

Kuroko leaned against her desk, eyes narrowed slightly as she observed Uiharu and Konori, both of whom were staring right back at her. The information Uiharu had gathered didn't appear to be anything good, at least not concerning the rumors about Mikoto and her 'clones'. Uiharu's search for Mikoto's face had revealed at least ten thousand other girls with the exact same hair, eyes, face, weight, height as Mikoto, heck they wore the same uniform. Originally Kuroko wanted to belief that it was some kind hacking program or miscalculation or even someone recording a single image and then filtering it through every camera in academy city—Uiharu shot the last one out of the water. There wasn't much more Kuroko could come up with, none of her theories were plausible, it didn't take in account of the people around the Mikoto-look alike and it didn't explain the time-date stamps on every image. Plus there was Mikoto's younger sister, Mai. Uiharu and Konori both talked to her for long lengths of time and both came up with the same conclusion, the girl just wasn't normal. She didn't process emotions like everyone else, she didn't appear surprised about their abilities, heck she appeared to know more about them than anyone else, even Mikoto couldn't possibly know as much as the 'younger sister' did.

"So… we're agreed on Mai-san then?" Konori asked slowly, looking at Kuroko anxiously, "She's a clone of Mikoto, just like the others?"

"…fine," Kuroko sighed, "I'll relent this time, doesn't mean I agree."

"We know," Konori smiled at her, "now then, for that mail man incident. Did you find anything out about him?"

"I did," Uiharu nodded sagely, "He doesn't work for the mail department and his name defiantly isn't 'Ao Konori'."

"He used 'Konori' as a name?" Kuroko asked in amusement, "Bet he's regretting that about now."

"Well since the object he left behind is a listening devise, I wouldn't be surprised," Konori smirked in agreement, staring pointedly at the potted plant in the corner, the large vase was pretty and expensive looking but it held a cute little devise at the bottom where it could listen on everything they said. "Bet he didn't realize I have Clairvoyance."

"He was severally miss-informed," Kuroko agreed with a snicker, "So Uiharu, you figure out his identity yet?"

"Not yet," Uiharu smiled patiently, "Although I did get several hits in the data base, I can't access them without Mikoto-chan's help. She can hack through anything with her electricity and not set off any alarms, her hacking ability would help a lot."

"The famed Goalkeeper can't hack something?" Konori asked in surprise

"I can't hack the system that's keeping Academy City alive and spinning," Uiharu replied with a confused look at Konori, "If I do that it'll shut down and all of Academy City would go dark… and what is up with that name, you keep calling me? I've never heard of it before the first you used it."

"Don't worry about the name," Konori sighed, "worry about the council keeping that guy's identity a secret. Seriously what's with the overly dramatized security measures'?"

"Why do you think the City's council has anything to do with it?" Kuroko asked

"Who else would have that kind of protection over a file much less the city?" Konori asked with a raised eyebrow

"Good point," Kuroko relented, "Anything else?"

"Yeah," Konori nodded absent mindedly, "I think each of us should start researching our abilities a little better."

"I already have," Uiharu bobbed her head in agreement, "I'm training with my ability more often now. I've got better control on it already."

"Good," Konori bobbed her head, "I'm training as well, it isn't easy with my ability but at least I'm trying."

"Whoa, hold up what are you two talking about?" Kuroko asked, "how can you possibly train your abilities to get any better then what you're at already? Konori you're the strongest clairvoyant in all of academy city, Uiharu… I don't know your ability…"

"I have thermal hand," Uiharu answered the silent question with a smile, "I've already done some research into it and I've found some useful tips to up my level."

"Nothing illegal I hope," Kuroko smiled playfully at her friend

"Of course not," Uiharu pouted at her, Kuroko snickered before turning her attention towards Konori

"Konori… how can you possibly train your vision? And how do you expect me to train my ability? They're not that common so neither one of us can train that easily with them." Kuroko frowned at the high scholar, "Just what are you thinking?" Konori stared passively at her for a moment before she looked at the potted plant and sighed in disappointment, she rose to her feet walked over and placed the tips of her fingers over the edge.

"Kuroko, can you teleport this whole plant, the soil and pot over here?" Konori asked, pointing to her other side

"That's a stupid question," Kuroko answered, straightening to walk towards her teacher

"Only I want you to leave something out," Konori said, making the red head pause for a moment, "the listening device in the bottom, leave it out of the transfer."

"Are you serious right now?" Kuroko asked with a frown, "that's imposable! A teleporter can't exclude certain objects that it touches! If I teleport that plant, the pot is going with it, and the devise with that!"

"On the contrary Shirai," Kuroko straightened at the cold voice of her senior, her eyes widening as Konori stared passively at her. "As a level four teleporter, one of the strongest in all of academy city and defiantly one of the smartest, you have that ability to exclude certain objects from your teleportation. You've done it before after all," Konori pointed at Uiharu, "remember when she got taken hostage?" Kuroko glanced back at Uiharu who nodded in agreement, her complete attention clued to Konori. "You teleported her outside but not the man holding her, you _excluded_ him from your teleportation. Do you have any idea just how surprised everyone was when they learned you did that?" Kuroko and Uiharu shared a bewildered look, neither one really understanding just what Konori was saying; Konori sighed as she realized just how oblivious the two girls really were.

"No other teleporter in all of Academy City, even the other level fours, can exclude someone or something from any object that they teleport," Konori explained, crossing her arms, "You alone have that ability. It's a known fact that when a teleporter teleports someone, anyone touching that person is teleported with them, heck anyone touching that second person is taken in for the ride. But you? You left that robber in the bank with you; you separated him from Uiharu without any trouble."

"I…" Kuroko looked down at a surprised Uiharu, "I… I only wanted to protect her…"

"Then think of it like this," Konori placed her hand on the pot again, "the plant is Uiharu, the pot is a part of her but the little thing attached to the bottom of her shoes isn't, it's the robber." Kuroko took a deep breath, rolled her eyes and stepped forward to put her hands on the plant and pot, closing her eyes she tried to recreate that feeling she had when she teleported Uiharu but not the robber. The plant and pot were Uiharu, the listening devise the robber… if she didn't separate the two then the robber (the devise) was going to hurt Uiharu (the plant), she had to remove Uiharu (the plant) to protect her, which means she had to keep the robber (the devise) where it was, she couldn't afford him following Uiharu.

Konori stepped away from Kuroko for safety sakes, watching how the girl's frown deepened and how she seemed to concentrate a little too closely on the potted plant. After a moment Konori was about to say something but stopped when the plant and pot teleported to her other side, Kuroko coughed hoarsely as she fell to her knees, her eyes closed and hands flying to her mouth.

"Shirai!" Uiharu called jumping to her feet, her face twisted in worry

"Well done Kuroko," Konori smiled, watching Uiharu fuss over the red head as they both turned to look up at her in bewilderment, "Told you, you could do it." The girls blinked and looked at the floor in confusion, laying innocently before them was a small round object covered in a thin layer of clay dust, a little red light flashed lazily to the upper right side.

"Uiharu I want you to take the devise and concentrate on raising its temperature," Konori instructed, "just try not to fry it completely." Uiharu looked up at Konori in confusion before she nodded slowly and took the small devise, she held it between her hands and concentrated on her ability. It took her a few moments then she liked but she was able to short circlet the devise, preserving its design and information but frying its ability to relay any information it got in contact with.

"Good," Konori nodded her head and took the little devise from the panting middle scholar, "you both take a break and rest up while I take this to evidence and get researched so we can find the manufacture… Clearly you both need practice with your abilities."

"You… you don't say," Uiharu panted, leaning against Kuroko tiredly

"I…I never would… 've g-guessed," Kuroko panted, _training is going to get fun around here_

"Sh-Shirai," Uiharu panted as she pulled away from Kuroko to stand on her feet, "How… how are you going to practice? How're you going to get stronger?" Kuroko pulled herself to her feet and followed Uiharu to the little table and couch, she flopped down gracelessly and remembered the upcoming tests that Mikoto would have to take part in.

"My ability tests… they're always on accuracy," Kuroko said thoughtfully, recalling her basically average test results for each test she took part in. the farther away her target the large the object she had to teleport but what if she took those large objects and made them small? What if she tried to shorten her teleportation period from one second to that of a millisecond… taking that into account; could she teleport herself so fast that she could leave behind after images? Was that even possible? What if she learned how to hit pressure points without destroying her needles? Could she actually learn to teleport to objects together to save up needles? She didn't need to waist them on someone who could just reflect them after all… so what if she used something else to teleport…

"Shirai?" Kuroko perked at the soft voice, her brown eyes locking instantly on the hot cup of cocoa held out in front of her face, "is everything okay?" Uiharu asked, looking worriedly at her friend, "You've been silent for a while now…" Kuroko smiled apologetically at her friend, wondering just how far her friend could go if she truly tried to master her skill.

"I'm fine," Kuroko answered as she took the cup of cocoa, "I was just thinking about the possibilities I could use to my advantage…"

"Like teleporting something without seeing where it lands?" Uiharu asked, "I always wondered if you could teleport something to another part of the building without seeing it land there."

"That's an interesting thought," Kuroko hummed as she took a sip of her cocoa, _could I do that?_ "It's worth a look into… oh yeah, how do you plan on practicing with your ability Uiharu? Do you use any special tools?"

"well… my thermal hand really isn't that useful in a fight but," Uiharu smiled at her, "if I could change the temperature of a room or make the air around my hands become exceptionally hot I could burn people with a touch, same if I cooled the air around them."

"…that's a little depressing coming from you," Kuroko sighed, "I never would've thought that you would have enough heart to even consider hurting another person."

"Originally I didn't," Uiharu smiled bitterly at her cup of cocoa, "the research I did into my ability told me that my predecessors were exceptionally good at controlling their surrounding temperatures. Fifty years ago, there was a man who made a portion of pure ice turn into the perfect hot spring; he was the highest ranked thermal hand Saitama Prefecture had ever seen—a simple level two."

"…that's slightly anti-climactic," Kuroko sighed, "I was totally expecting him to be a higher rank. Or to be able to do cooler things. Well, I mean, turning a lot of pure snow and ice into a hot spring is cool and all but it doesn't sound very useful in a fight… I mean—"

"It's okay Shirai I know what you mean," Uiharu smiled at her, "I'm the only thermal hand that's been born since then and the first one in all of academy city. No one really knows what my ability can do; no one's bothered to go past level one. And besides, Saitama Prefecture's ability tests are like, grad school compared to Academy City's tests, especially in concerns to their ability testing." Kuroko stared at Uiharu for a moment, silent and thoughtful. To be the only one in two million plus people to have an ability and it was completely up to her path the path for future thermal hands. She was the one who had to reveal all the secrets concerning her ability, an ability that hasn't been seen for fifty years, and she still hasn't shown any skill beyond a box of sweets.

"…are you?" Kuroko asked softly, staring into nothing as Uiharu's head popped up to look at her in confusion, "are you going to show the world just how strong a thermal hand could be?" Kuroko asked, looking up at her friend with curious gold-brown orbs, "Are you going to show the world just how strong you can be?" Uiharu blushed brightly; she ducked her head and stared down at her cup on the verge of panic

"Y…yes," Uiharu answered at last, lifting her face to smile at Kuroko, "I'll show everyone just how strong a thermal hand can be!"

…

Unbeknownst them, outside their office door, stood a familiar black haired girl, standing with her back to the wall and her head slightly bent as she listened to them speak. She had heard every word they said and had made a silent promise herself, she wouldn't be left behind by her friends, she would work on her level zero and turn herself into a level one. Once she got that far she could then turn to a higher ranked Aero-hand user and train with them, she'll do whatever it takes to catch up with her friends.

 _Sorry Uiharu,_ Ruiko thought as she lifted off the wall and started down the hall, _you might have to wait for me for a little while…_

"Where are you going?" Ruiko jumped at the voice, she turned around and found herself staring at an amused Konori, "you weren't about to leave without saying goodbye were you?" Konori asked, "or where those treats for someone else?"

"Huh?" Ruiko blinked and looked down at the bag she was still holding on to, "oh yeah…" she forgot that she bought everyone dinner.

"Come on," Konori chuckled, opening the door, "hay everyone guess what? We don't have to pay for dinner!" Ruiko smiled at the sound of two voices whooping for joy, shaking her head with a smile, Ruiko followed Konori into the small office.

"Saten-san!" Uiharu smiled, jumping to her feet, "you didn't have to go through all the trouble, I could've helped!"

"Nope, it's my treat," Ruiko smiled, holding the bag out of Uiharu's reach, "It's a promise after all."

"Huh? A promise?" Uiharu asked in bewilderment, looking at Ruiko with a tilted head, "What promise?"

"The promise to become level fives," Ruiko smiled, lowering the bag so Uiharu could reach it, "don't you two dare think you can leave me out of the loop. It'll take me longer then you but I'll try my hardest to become level one and then I'll start training with a higher rank that has the same ability, that should help a lot."

"…it could help but you have to be careful Ruiko," Kuroko spoke up, "if you move too fast you'll short-circlet yourself and end up stuck at a level because you damaged your body too much to continue forward."

"Rest is important when training in your ability," Konori agreed, "otherwise you'll never move forward."

"I understand," Ruiko nodded her head, "I just have to work hard on achieving level one first. That's the hardest step."

"For a level zero yes," Konori agreed seriously, "but remember, achieving the next level won't be easy. Each test will get harder and harder, the test for your second level won't be anything like your test for your third. Your second level test is two times harder than your test for level one. Level three is three times harder than level two, level four is four times harder than level three, and level five is five times harder than level four. Does that make sense?"

"Not really," Ruiko answered honestly, earning sighs from her friends, "but it does explain why it's so hard to become a level five. In order to achieve it, you must work hard and never give up."

"That's right," Kuroko smiled at her, "because becoming a level five from a level zero is a one in a million shot."

"Shirai be nice," Uiharu reprimanded, "Ruiko can become a level five like the rest of us, it'll just be harder."

"That's what I meant," Kuroko smiled at Uiharu, "After all, Mikoto-nee is a one in a million level zero turned level five."

"She is?" Ruiko asked with wide eyes

"Hai," Kuroko nodded, "She became a level one when she was about six or so and didn't stop training until she was about ten, when she reached level five for the first time."

"It took her four years?" Ruiko questioned in surprise

"Yeah," Kuroko nodded, "she never stopped practicing, even when her ability started reacting with her emotions, she viewed it as practice. However, that amount of constant, endless practice has its drawbacks. So now she's unable to do some tasks that other electro masters would find easy. She damaged herself just to become a level five, her constant use of her abilities damaged the developmental section of her brain and she can never become stronger then what she is now. The only thing she can do now to remain at the top is to learn how to use her powers in any situation thrown at her, to keep learning how to use her abilities without actually growing them."

"It's like learning new swings with a baseball bat," Konori sighed, having gotten a headache herself at Kuroko's explanation. "You can learn how to hit the ball in a hundred different ways but your bat has yet to change size."

"Oh, okay got it," Ruiko bobbed her head in understand

"…it's kind of sad that you understand THAT analogy," Uiharu smiled at her friend

"Shut it Uiharu!" Ruiko pouted, "or do you not want your ice-cream Sunday?!"

"I'm sorry!" Uiharu said imminently, clasping her hands together in front of her face and giving Ruiko her best puppy-dog face, "I didn't mean to insult you, I swear!"

…

* * *

…

The next day

…

* * *

…

"Do you remember me?!" Ruiko asked the second she slid to a stop into Mikoto's room, her dark eyes wide and panicked, "Well?! Do you?!" Ruiko had overheard one of the Misaka clones the previous night about Mikoto having amnesia, unfortunately she didn't stick around to listen in on how bad it was. As such, she spent the rest of the night with Uiharu and the majority of the morning with Kuroko. That's why she wasn't in Mikoto's room first thing in the morning, Uiharu and Kuroko had successfully managed to delay the slightly panicked black haired girl before she dragged the both of them to the hospital.

"Yes, I remember you," Mikoto chuckled, "you're Saten Ruiko, one of my friends."

"What level am I?!"

"Zero"

"What did the Level Upper give me?!"

"Level Upper didn't give you anything, it simply amplified what's already there," Mai drawled calmly

"Aero hand," Mikoto answered, smiling at her 'twin', "Just entertain her for now Imoto, she'll settle down soon enough."

"Then you can answer my questions next," everyone blinked at each other before turning as one towards the entrance of the room. Standing there with one hand on her hip with two high scholars, a familiar boy and a familiar doctor standing just behind her, Aiho glared at the group of friends. "Kuroko Shirai, Uiharu Kazari, Ruiko Saten, you three get out of here."

"But—"

"No 'buts'," Aiho glared at Kuroko, "I said out and I expect you three to do it before I decide to get violent."

"Yes ma'am," Ruiko and Uiharu said together, their faces pale as they swept an arm under each of Kuroko's and promptly marched right out of the room. Mikoto watched passively as Aiho walked forward with the doctor to stand on the right side of her bed while Mii and Touma went to her left side; both of whom were followed closely with two other kids, one of whom looked like she belonged in a church somewhere.

"What's the point of making them leave?" Mikoto asked, turning her attention onto Aiho, "You let Mai stay and two strangers enter. Surly whatever you have to say to me you can say in front of—"

"Cut the act brat," Aiho growled, "I know about your clones. So does Konori, Akira, Touma, and your doctor here," Aiho glanced at the frog-faced man as he stepped forward with a polite smile. Mikoto stiffened in her bed and glanced at Mai, the clone glanced back at her dully, as if she hadn't done anything wrong—she's seen that look before.

"'Mai has not received the password from any of them,' Mai says as she tries to reassure Onee-sama about her innocence about the subject at hand." Mai said tonelessly, Mikoto continued to stare at her for a moment before nodding in acceptance. The little nun-kid tugged on Touma's sleeve, distress twisting her pretty features at the information, but he simply shook his head, a silent sign for her to be quiet.

"Of course you didn't," Mikoto murmured, turning piercing amber eyes onto the doctor, "So… how'd _you_ find out?"

"I tested her blood," the doctor answered honestly, "it was basically a map of what she is, and she doesn't hold the same DNA file as you, a natural born human. The key with her is that she has approximately three different growth hormones added to her DNA sequence." Mikoto remained silent as she stared at him, her eyes carefully rolling over to observe Konori, 'Akira', and the Anti-skill officer she saw from time to time. "It is these hormones that have shortened… Mai's, as you call her, life span," Mikoto's eyes snapped back over to the frog faced doctor, "by my calculations… she has about two years left."

"…Just which 'Mai' are you speaking of?" Mikoto asked, feeling slightly defensive of her 'sisters'

"'10032' Mai answers as it is obvious that 10032 was the only clone admitted to the hospital" Mai answered passively, drawing Mikoto's attention to herself imminently, "All ten-thousand others are healthy and unharmed."

"There are ten-thousand of you?" Aiho asked, perking at the information

"'There is' Mai confirms somewhat reluctantly," Mai confirmed, watching Touma rub the back of his neck as he shared an unsure look with the nun-kid.

"Who is your youngest?" Aiho asked

"'19999' Mai answers, unsure if she should answer these intrusive questions"

"Alright… who is your oldest?" Aiho asked, not quite sure if she understood what the clone meant

"8912" Mai answered passively, "9982 and her are the last of their generation."

"And your oldest clones-I mean sisters?" Aiho asked, Mai nodded in agreement

"I have a question for you 10032-san," the doctor spook up, stepping forward again, "the way you speak… have you had experience with the testament devise?" the four teens perked at the information, their heads snapping into attention, their eyes wide as they stared in disbelief at the white-haired doctor.

"Testament?" Aiho questioned, "That devise was designed to increase someone's Esper Level. Why would they use it on a clone?"

"Testament was designed to do that however there were too many drawbacks" Akira spoke up, drawing attention to himself, "it was banned from use and considered too dangerous to use."

"You'd be right but for one thing," Mikoto agreed, leaning back against the raised portion of her bed

"And what is that?" Akira asked curiously

"You're thinking that the clones are wakened with a complete and fully functional brain," Mikoto answered passively. "Each clone, once hatched from the tube, are 'born' with the mentality and personality of a new born baby."

"I see," the doctor sighed, "So my assumptions… they're correct?"

"Indeed," the clone agreed with a court nod, "the devise known as 'testament' places each newly born 'Misaka' into the same 'network' as the previous clones, this keeps them in constant contact. What one clone experience will be transformed to all other clones so that they all may adapt to the problem at hand and grow and strength as a result."

"Is there a way to break the connection?" Akira asked curiously

"That's out of the question," Mikoto snapped

"Death," the clone answered at the same time

A thick, heavy silence settled over them

…

* * *

…

"Nee-chan what are you doing?" she paused briefly, one hand brushing the edge of one of her child hood dresses, she glanced back at the little girl, wiry and tiered the little girl rubbed sleepily at her sapphire eye.

"I'm going to give you a dress," she answered, pulling out said dress and turning to the little girl, "lift your arms." The girl did and it wasn't long before the dress sat snuggly around the adorable little blonde. "There," she said, gently pulling the girl's hair from under the dress. "Take this," she gently tugged the strap of her once favorite purse over the girl's head, "remember you must suck on one of these every now and again, understand?"

"Yes Nee-chan," she smiled around the green lollipop, "When can I see sissy?"

"Soon," she whispered, patting the girl's head affectionately, "oh… there's one more thing you must remember."

"What is it?" she asked

"Mikoto Misaka," she answered, smiling softly, "if anyone can protect you, it's her."

"Mikoto… Misaka…"

…

* * *

…

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 10**


	8. Chapter 8

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 8: another level five

Koomahana

 **Some scene mass editing in chapters 3, 6 and 8**

 **Minor grammar and spelling corrections in 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7**

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

"So like you don't know anything about the Legend web site?" Ruiko asked as they walked through the park, Kuroko and Uiharu were to her left while 'Mai' walked on her right. It had been a week since she overheard the conversation pertaining to Mikoto and her sisters, she decided that she wouldn't comment on the subject until Mikoto told her herself; until then, she'll continue playing dumb. the current sister walking beside her seemed a little more versed in conversation and she lacked the eyepatch the twin had in the medic room when Ruiko last visited Mikoto, which was another clue to her that she should keep her mouth shut about the rather obvious divergences in each clone.

"'Mai has never heard of Legend Website' Mai says, trying to convey her confusion at the possibility of a Legend being something online'." Mai replied calmly, she turned back to the bath they were walking on and paused at the top of the stairs they would need to take to get out of the park.

"Huh? What is it?" Ruiko asked, pausing beside Mai and looking in the same direction as the brunet, "what the…"

"Is that a kid?" Uiharu asked as she stopped too look at the raised flowerbed, the only thing she could make out was long blonde hair and a little black dress.

"On it!" Kuroko chimed, teleporting from beside her friends to the end of the stairs, it wasn't long before her friends were beside her. "It is a kid…" Kuroko murmured, sounding confused and a little lost, as if she was at a loss of words and wasn't entirely sure what she should do other than most obvious choice of going to the nearest judgment office.

"We've got to do something," Ruiko whispered, remembering a time from when she was little and got lost herself, "we can't just leave her here…"

"And we're not going to," Kuroko replied, "We're going to go to take her to that bench and see if she wakes up. If she does we might be able to track down her parents and return her to them before anything happens." Ruiko nodded and they followed Kuroko to the bench where they laid they sat the girl down, sat because when they lifted her she woke up but was too tired to move.

"Hay are you awake now?" Ruiko asked, crouching in front of the girl, "can you tell us your name?" the little girl nodded slightly, turning her azure eyes to study each of them silently. "Will you tell us your name?"

"Febri" she answered, her voice whisper soft

"Ah~ how cute," Uiharu cooed with a smile

"Alright, I'm Ruiko Saten," Ruiko smiled, "Can you tell me something about you? It could be anything really…" Febri blinked slowly at her, her head tilting slightly to the side, "hmm… like this, I like apples." Again Febri stared at her, blinking slowly in thought before she finally answered just as softly as she had given her name.

"…Mikoto Misaka…" Febri watched as the girls around her stiffened, their eyes widening slightly before they turned as one and stared at the silent brunet standing off to the side, observing them passively. Febri looked too, staring at the older girl curiously, wondering if that dull eyed girl could be the same one her sister told her to remember. Ruiko sighed and rose to her feet and stepped away from Febri, letting Mai step forward until she was standing beside the little blonde.

"I am Mai Misaka," Mai said indifferently, "Mikoto Misaka is my Onee-sama… do you know her?" Febri stared at her for a moment before she jumped to her feet and ran towards Ruiko, hiding behind the black haired girl as if she were a shield.

"Guess we know who her favorite is," Kuroko chuckled; Mai blinked at the girl before pulling out her cell phone, ignoring the group of friends Mai answered the phone, agreed quickly to something and then hung up, nearly at the same time she turned on her heel and started walking away.

"Ah! Mai-san!" Kuroko called, turning to watch the brunet walk away, "Where are you going?"

"Onee-sama has asked for my presence," Mai answered, pausing to glance back at her sister's friends, almost like she forgot about them.

"Then I'm coming too!" Kuroko called spinning on her heal to join the younger sister

"Well Saten, what do you think? Should we take Febri with us or go to the judgment office?" Uiharu asked, turning to look at her friend. Ruiko looked down at Febri and thought for a moment before sighing and nodding her head in consent.

"What do you think Febri? Do you want to meet Mikoto Misaka?" Ruiko asked, smiling down at the blonde

"…okay…" Febri agreed softly, accepting the request simply enough

"Alright then!" Ruiko smiled and moved forward to join Uiharu, Kuroko and Mai

…

* * *

…

 _Something was weighing her down, she was burning, she was suffocating, she was… she was…_

 _Her eyes opened to stare lifelessly at the colors of flame orange and sunshine yellow; beyond the blinding, suffocating dancing lights there was a blanket of smoky-ashy black. She could feel intense heat from the dancing, shifting lights that surrounded her, she could feel their presence as they sucked away the little bit of moister that carefully oozed itself from her skin. The weight on top of her shifted and for the first time she realized that it had a form, heck, she could almost feel the beating of its rapid heartbeat thumbing through her own ribcage. It didn't suffocate her but she could feel its breath panting against her neck; it didn't crush her but she could feel its presence, like a second layer of clothes._

 _It shifted again and this time she let her eyes focus on the thing pinning her to the ground. At first she could only see something awash in purist white, like silk thread or snowcapped hills, then she saw something as bright as liquid crimson and as hard as rubies. They were small and round, surrounded in more pure white but the small crimson, scarlet things almost appeared to be eyes. She swore that if she so much as twitched her lips up, she could make contact with that person hovering over her. The thought made her lips tingle, her face burn and her eyes widen slightly, realizing that this person was just too close for comfort._

 _But_ … _she didn't push him away_

…

With a start Mikoto's eyes popped open and she found herself staring dumbly at a rather ridicules sight. Kuroko and Mai were locked together at her side, Kuroko with that ridiculous face she makes when she thinks she can get away with groping Mikoto and Mai had her arms wrapped snuggly around the red head, keeping the younger girl just out of reaching distance of Mikoto. To her other side was Uiharu, Ruiko and a little blonde girl that Mikoto never met before, but wasn't entirely sure if she had, considering she had a bit of amnesia and they didn't know how bad it was.

"You two stop it," Ruiko sighed, as she straightened from where she was crouched, "look what you've done, she's awake now."

"Onee-sama," Mai and Kuroko greeted together, Mai passively and Kuroko like she just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.

"'I am sorry' Mai says as it was not her intention to wake her elder sister until she was ready to be discharged," Mai said as she released Kuroko, purposefully letting the red head collapse on the cold tile of the hospital floor.

"With Kuroko around it's best to prepare for the unexpected," Mikoto chuckled, "I don't mind it's almost time anyways."

"Huh?" Kuroko coughed, glaring up at Mai as she carefully picked herself up from the floor, "What's that supposed to mean Onee-sama?"

"Onee-sama isn't _your_ Onee-sama', Mai corrects as she deliberately points out the lack of common features between _her_ Onee-sama and the gender confused red head."

"Gender confused?!" Kuroko screeched jumping to her feet and glaring at Mai with a scarlet face, "I am well aware of what gender I am, thank you very much!"

"Then you are aware that both you and _my_ Onee-sama are of the same gender, yes?" Mai asked, rather bluntly setting Kuroko up for a trap that the heated red head didn't quite see right away

"Of course I know that!" Kuroko snapped, "how do you know that I don't prefer things that way?!"

"As Mai said a moment ago," Mai seemed to smirk in triumph at Kuroko, "Gender confused." Mikoto snickered to herself as Kuroko and Mai got into another argument, obviously Mai began winning when Kuroko tried to attack her.

"So Mikoto," Ruiko snickered as she turned back to look at the brunet, "have you seen this cutie before?" Mikoto blinked at her before she looked down at the adorable little blonde, she smiled softly at the girl and watched as the girl blinked slowly up at her.

"I'm afraid not," Mikoto sighed, gently brushing her fingers over the edge of the bandage that was wrapped snuggly around her head, "guess I bumped my head harder than I thought." That seemed to have drawn Febri's attention to the thick bandage on Mikoto's head; her blue eyes locked on the pristine bandages curiously. "Hmm… little one," Mikoto called softly, making the blonde focus on her again, "Do you recognize me? Do I look familiar to you?" Febri blinked slowly before jumping off the bed and running to the end, where she hid behind the very edge of the bed and Ruiko's leg.

"Guess not," Mikoto smiled sadly, _still… how does she know my name?_

"Ah-ah-Nee-sama," Mai coughed out, her hands wrapped snuggly around Kuroko's forearm as the red head tried to choke the clone into submission, "'Mai seeks approval to fight back' Mai says as her patients begins to where thin."

"Huh? Oh, Imoto, come here for a moment," Mikoto called, waving her 'twin' over and ignoring the shocked sputtering from Kuroko.

"Yes Onee-sama?" Mai asked nearly sending Kuroko flying as she broke the younger girl's hold and moved closer to Mikoto's bed.

"Can you grab my bag there?" Mikoto asked, pointing to the little brown bag sitting beside the couch, "I think I have something she can play with for a little bit." Mai nodded and grabbed the bag Mikoto needed, she stood by and watched as Mikoto carefully pulled out a bobby-pin and one of her more ridiculous frog toys. Ruiko smiled and gently coaxed Febri to stand beside Mikoto while Uiharu helped Kuroko back onto her feet. Febri watched in amazement with a few little sparks, the little pink finger-puppet frog carefully stood on end, almost hovering in Mikoto's palm.

" _Hello Febri_ ," the little frog seemed to speak, spinning slightly in Mikoto's lowered palm, " _I'm Gekkoda and I'm a friend_." Febri made a cute little noise of awe, her blue eyes sparkling brightly as she watched the little frog hover in Mikoto's palm, " _I was just wondering if_ —ah!" Mikoto stopped her vinquilist when Febri snatched the little puppet and took off for the hospital door, "my puppet!" Mikoto called looking like she might cry; Kuroko rolled her eyes moved to intercept Febri before she could get too far. However, the red head didn't need to go too far before the hospital door opened and the little blonde ran straight into the person walking in.

"Oh, I'm sorry little one," a familiar voice called, gently pushing the little girl back into the room, "Ah good you're awake."

"Doctor," Mikoto smiled at the frog faced man, "Is it time already?"

"Yes it is," he smiled, calmly passing the little girl over to Ruiko when she walked over and took the blonde's hand, "Are you ready?"

"Yeah!" Mikoto smiled and flipped her blankets off

"Ah!" the doctor moved forward to stop Mikoto before she could put her feet on the floor, "Wait you don't want to—" Mikoto ignored him and jumped onto her feet, she took a step forward and imminently her knees buckled under, sending her careening onto the hard, cold, unforgiving floor.

"Onee-sama!" Kuroko and Mai shouted at the same time, however Kuroko didn't teleport in time to catch Mikoto before she collapsed on the ground.

"Misaka-san!" the doctor called, rushing past Ruiko and Febri to tend to Mikoto, "Are you hurt anywhere?"

"I…I'm fine," Mikoto panted as she pushed herself off the ground, her face as red as a tomato, "The only thing damaged here is my pride."

"That's good to hear," the doctor sighed, helping Uiharu lift Mikoto onto her feet before carefully setting the brunet on her bed. "Are you sure you should be leaving so soon? Anyone else would be happy to stay…"

"I'm sure," Mikoto sighed, smiling at Mai and Kuroko when they appeared together to stand beside her. "But I don't have that kind of benefit. Our dorm supervisor is bound to through a conniption fit for not returning on time."

"Ah… about that," Kuroko chuckled, "you see… I kind of made use of your adorable little sister here…"

Mikoto's head snapped to glare at her red headed roommate, "What did you do?"

"On nothing too much," Kuroko chuckled again, leaning slightly away from Mikoto, "Just… pretended that she was you." Mikoto stared dully at Kuroko, as if she couldn't believe what the red head just said.

"'Yes' Mai agrees as she pours _her_ Onee-sama a cup of water," Mai said, Kuroko flinched at the jab, her brow twitching wildly. "Though it didn't work in the end for the dorm supervisor saw through Shirai's lies and later questioned me about my identity herself', Mai continues as she passes the cup of water to _her_ Onee-sama.'"

"What?!" Kuroko shouted, snapping around to stare at Mai with wide eyes, "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"Ah that's right," Mai's lips quirked up into an amused smile, her gray eyes seemingly glinting in the half light of the afternoon sun, "the Dorm supervisor informed me to tell you that the more day's you lie about my identify the heavier the punishment will be."

"Why didn't you say that sooner?!" Kuroko asked loudly, looking as if she just saw a ghost of one of her dead relatives

"It slipped my mind," Mai answered, Mikoto snickered as Kuroko raked her fingers through her hair and made a pained half-shout half-whimper.

"You're defiantly related to Mikoto," Ruiko snickered. Mikoto and Mai shared a look before smirking at each other, Mikoto going so far as to snicker softly, "What?" Ruiko asked, blinking dumbly at her friend, "What are you two smirking at?"

"It's nothing," Mikoto chuckled, sipping from her cup of water, "So Doc, when can I leave?"

"In a moment if you're willing to be patient," the doctor sighed, "I had to order you a wheel chair and it arrived just a few minutes ago."

"Really?" Mikoto asked, "Why'd you have to order it?"

"Because," He sighed, turning away from her, "there are certain… details to this wheel chair that aren't apart of the normal kind." Mikoto's eyes narrowed slightly before she leaned back on her palms and smirked at him, suddenly feeling as if the 'details' were potential violent 'details' that could help her fight if she needed to.

"I picked it out," Mai said, as if she wanted approval from Mikoto for her efforts

"I'll go get it now" the doctor commented, leaving the room before another fight between Kuroko and Mai could break out

"I can't wait to see it," Mikoto said, turning to look at Mai with a smile, "It'll defiantly be awesome if you picked it out."

"I'm blind," Kuroko grumbled staring at Mai who had a dopy looking smile on her face

"She's glowing," Uiharu whispered in awe

"Defiantly a sister complex," Ruiko snickered. None of them noticed the wide eyed look Febri was giving Mikoto, the little girl almost appeared to be staring at the brunet in complete awe, as if she was seeing sunlight for the first time.

…

* * *

…

She stared dully down at the large manila fold she received in the mail the previous month, the documents inside were certainly interesting and her father's workers were all to happy to start the project for her. They were even taking the original diagrams and made some adjustments, even going so far as changing the requested metal and thickness the sender wanted, in some cases they were making different versions of the same design, each catering to something she didn't quite understand. Her father and workers never once remained silent about how brilliant the person who created the strange design was, even she couldn't deny that the person who came up with the design was anything shirt of an engineering genius. With one look she knew the design was to cater to someone with electromagnetic specialization, clearly designed by an esper for an esper, but what purpose she couldn't understand. She did know that at the current rate her father's engineers were working, she'd be able to send out the requested order to its directive location on time, almost a weak and half early if the workers kept pulling over time.

"I wonder who made you…" she whispered, staring down at the IPad curiously, flipping the digital design back and forth, showing her different angles and variations. She was a little alarmed with the overall appearance the diagram produced, it made her wonder if her father's people would really make the required item as graceful looking as what she was staring at right now.

"Hay Mitsuko! What are you doing all the way out here?" she gasped and looked up, her dark eyes widening at the sight of her two friends calmly walking towards her, "I thought we weren't going to meat up until later?"

"Wannai, Awatsuki, you're early," Mitsuko blinked at the two girls, she easily tucked a long lock of black hair behind her ear as she turned to address the two girls.

"Wow you were spaced," Awatsuki smiled, "we've been standing here for a while, you feeling okay?"

"Yes," Mitsuko smiled, looking down at the screen of her IPad, "I was just distracted by my father's newest project." Her friends shared a look before looking over their dark haired friend's shoulder to look at what was rotating on the screen of Mitsuko's iPad. To them, it appeared to be a pretty but strange looking dress, it appeared to have been designed after a bird, even the large sleaves appeared to have been created by hundreds, if not thousands, of feathers.

"That looks insanely expensive," Wannai murmured, blinking wide honey eyes at the digital image

"Not to mention illegal," Awatsuki frowned at the image, "how many birds are going to die for this thing?"

"Huh? Oh they're not real feathers," Mitsuko blinked at her friend, surprise filling her, "They're really thin sheets of specially designed metallic weapons. Each feather is removable from the main suite, to normal people it would feel and look like a feather from an albino eagle but it's actually strips of metal as thin as a hair, each strip is specially curved and carved to look and act like a feather."

"So wait, you mean the metal is going to be formed like the little hairs that form feathers?" Awatsuki asked, her dark eyes widening in surprise, "That's a lot of work Mitsuko, can it even be done?"

"The workers are having a blast trying to create them," Mitsuko replied, leaning back in her seat, "they're having so much fun with this that they're actually making a double and other various versions of the suit. Heck, the one factory we were using has actually enlisted the help of three others."

"Wait, the workers in your dad's company are having _fun_?" Wannai asked, "I thought they specialized in building aircraft and spaceships?"

"That's why they're having so much fun," Mitsuko smiled, "it's something new and most importantly it's a challenge. That's why they're having so much fun."

"Is it just me or dose everyone working for your dad, are secret work-a-holics?" Awatsuki asked as she brushed her finger over the surface of the iPad and showed an extreme close up of one of the feathers. "Hay, why dose your suit look like a dress?" Mitsuko blinked dumbly at her before looking back down at the IPad curiously, even going so far as to moving back to the main image of the entire project when it was whole (if they could get it there). True to her friend's words, it truly appeared like a dress, something she hadn't initially thought of; she didn't even see it that way when she saw the original design. Humming, Mitsuko stared at the gently twisting project, showing her every view of the some-day-finished design.

"I honestly didn't see that," Mitsuko admitted softly, her eyes narrowing slightly in thought

…

* * *

…

Mikoto smiled as Mai pushed her through the streets, Kuroko was talking animatedly about her newest favorite store, Ruiko and Uiharu were talking about visiting district six for the amusement park. As it turned out, the wheel chair the frog-faced doctor had gotten for her was actually designed for an electro-master, meaning it prevented her from accidentally electrocuting anyone within a foot of her. She could still manipulate electricity and she could still harness it within her own body, but her ability was no longer controlled by her emotions, she now had to make an effort in using her power. So long as she was within the wheelchair, she was reduced back to a level two or three elector-master—Mikoto absolutely hated it.

"Onee-sama," Mai said softly, just low enough that the three other girls couldn't hear her, "Once we get to the dorms, what will I do? My task was to roleplay as you but with your return I—"

"Don't worry Imoto," Mikoto said just as softly as she leaned back in the chair, "the principle has already spoken to me about it. You will continue sharing a room with me and Kuroko, okay?"

"'But there are only two twin sized beds,' Mai says as she tries to reason that the dorms weren't made for three children to share," Mikoto sighed at the strange speaking habit her 'sister' had, she would have to help her with that speech if she had a hope to remain sane with her twin and roommate remaining constantly at her side. She could live with Mai calmly; she could live with Kuroko which involved some violence here and there, but the both of them together? She was getting a headache just thinking about it

"Hay Mikoto, you want to go to the amusement park next week?" Ruiko asked as she popped up beside Mai, bending forward so Mikoto could see her, "I promise we'll go only on the ones were you can attend too."

"I don't mind attending," Mikoto answered, "Mai you in?"

"'I have never attended the amusement park before,' Mai sa—"

"Great, I'll inform the tyrant when we get to the dorms," Kuroko smiled as she spun on her heel to walk back words, "Oh yeah, I've scheduled a session with a speech therapist for Mai, I hope you don't mind."

"I mind," the twins said at the same time, electing giggles from Uiharu and Ruiko

"What? But your sister sounds like a narration from a boring boo—"

"Shirai-san look out!" Uiharu gasped, reaching out uselessly to her friend

"Huh?" Kuroko blinked as she bumped into someone, she snapped around quickly with wide eyes, "Oh, I'm sorry sir!" before the red head was a tall blonde boy dressed in a dark high school uniform, his perfectly golden eyes blinked slowly back at her, as if he was just as surprised as she was.

"Hello there," the boy smiled at her, "I'm sorry I didn't see you there."

"'It wasn't your fault,' Mai says trying to reassure the boy that he was not at fault and that Shirai-san should've been more aware of her surroundings by not walking back words and talking at the same time." Mikoto snorted, quickly putting a hand over her mouth to hide the smile she was wearing, Mai felt no such reservations and openly smirked at the glaring redhead.

"Shut it peanut gallery!" Kuroko snapped, before looking back up at the boy, "I'm s—"

"I honestly don't know how I couldn't have noticed you before," The boy said, not realizing that Kuroko was about to start talking again, "How could I have missed such fine and lovely ladies like yourself?" it was more than clear the boy was used to flirting with girls and while Kuroko, Uiharu and Ruiko all blushed at the compliment, the well-known twins were less than impressed.

"Don't bother," Mikoto drawled, she's seen boy's try to use similar lines with her before so she knew that he was just giving them empty flattery.

"'We are not interested,' Mai say's agreeing with Onee-sama's disinterest in the older male," the boy blinked at the twins, Mikoto stared at him for a moment before her eyes narrowed. She straightened in her wheel chair and tried to look just that little bit taller, catching Ruiko's eye the younger black haired girl picked up Febri and quickly passed her off to Uiharu who took her without question.

"You look tense Imoto," the boy smiled at Mikoto, earning an irated look from Kuroko

"Okay mister! Step away from Sissy right now!" Kuroko snapped purposefully blocking Mikoto from sight, the brunet looked up at Mai and tilted her head to the alleyway nearby, "I know Sissy is the ace of Tokiwadai but that doesn't mean you can talk to her like you're best friends!"

"Not something you would know about,' Mai says as she tries to remind the girl of her own lack of—"

"Shut it Mai!" Kuroko snapped, glaring over her shoulder, that glance was all she needed to see that Uiharu, Ruiko and Febri were gone, she shot a look down at Mikoto who only nodded at her. Kuroko blinked at her roommate in confusion before turning to regard the strange boy before them seriously, if Mikoto had the three of them leave, then he was more than he appeared to be.

"Hm? Oh my apologies, I really should introduce myself," the boy said as he openly smiled at the three girls, he took a step back and placed a hand on his chest, where he then bowed deeply to them. "My name is Kakine Teitoku," Mikoto stiffened at the name, the boy raised his eyes and gave a Kuroko a sharp almost predatory look, "it's a pleasure to meet you."

"Kuroko leave," Mikoto ordered

"But,"

" _Now_ ," Mikoto interrupted, "Go check on Febri."

"A-alright," Kuroko stuttered, she looked back at Kakine unsurely before she quickly hurried into the nearest alleyway, where she could make out Uiharu's brightly colored headband.

"I'm glad you made it Shirai," Uiharu whispered, tugging her further down the cramped Ally, "Mai said it was going to get ugly out there and we had better get to where it was safe with Febri."

"What? You mean Sissy is about to fight?" Kuroko asked with wide eyes, "I have too—"

"No Shirai, you don't understand," Uiharu tugged on Kuroko's hand, jerking her back to her, "That boy out there is academy city's number two level five esper! He's Kakine the dark matter master!"

…

* * *

…

 **I just found out that my grandpa has a tumor in the center of his spine, I'll post the next two chapters in their respective week updates, but after that there will be a long wait because I won't be writing. I know that I'm not supposed to be updating stories with notices but I'm replacing all notices with a similar one to this, the only exceptions are going to be the one shots, I'm removing all other notices from them.**

 **Sorry to do this to you guys but at least you have a head's up**

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 12**


	9. Chapter 9

**Curse of a Mark**

Chapter 9: A fight between fives

Koomahana

 **Disclaimer: Railgun is not mine; you want the real stuff get off this site**

 _Thoughts_

 _Paragraphs are memories_

…

* * *

…

"Now that wasn't necessary," Kakine smiled at Mikoto, he stuffed his hands into his pockets and leaned back slightly, Mai herself stepped out from behind Mikoto and took a protective stance beside her. "Ah~ that's so cute, I wasn't aware that the famed Railgun of Tokiwadai even had a cute little sister," Kakine's smile didn't drop and it put both 'twins' on edge.

"What do you want?" Mikoto asked, eyes narrowing at him

"Hm? What a fellow level five can't greet another level five peacefully?" Kakine asked as if he was disappointed, even going so far as to sigh at her, like she disappointed him

"Not without a fight occurring," Mikoto replied sharply, "I don't know about you but every level five I've met has only ever wanted a fight with me, what makes you any different?"

"Now that just hurts," Kakine gave a wounded look, "to group me in with all those low class—whoa!" Kakine ducked just in time to avoid a bolt of electricity, curtesy of Mai. "Now _that_ was rude," He said as he straightened and patted his hair back down, double checking its placement as if it worried him.

"Quite wasting our time," Mikoto ordered, "what do you want?'" Kakine raised an eyebrow at Mikoto, before smirking. At first she didn't get it but then she saw the blonde twist and her eyes widened, "Mai!" her shout came too late, Kakine was already behind her with Mai clasped by the throat. The clone and choked, kicking uselessly at the blonde while she scrapped her nails against his hand, trying desperately to get him to let go.

"Let go of her!" Mikoto ordered as she struggled to turn her wheelchair around to face him, "I said let her go!"

"Now the last time I checked none of the level five espers of Academy city _had_ any siblings," Kakine smirked at her, his arm seemingly unhindered with the clone's weight, "in fact, every single one of us is an only child coming from a unique back ground from around Academy city."

"What's your point?" Mikoto asked, her eyes narrowing as she finally succeeded in turning to face him

"I find it strange that our number three suddenly gained a younger, _twin_ sister out of the blue," Kakine answered, narrowing his own eyes as his smile faded to show just how serious he was about the subject, "I find it even stranger that it took blowing up the shipyard to find her and the ridiculous story the media keeps spitting out without any evidence is even more annoying."

"Quite beating around the bush and tell me what you want," Mikoto snapped, only to flinch as she felt her side throb painfully, nearly stealing her breath away

"The real Railgun," Kakine answered, watching Mikoto press a hand to her side. "As you've said, I want to fight her, see if she's truly what everyone is making her out to be."

"I'm right here," Mikoto hissed, blood beginning to seep through her bandages as her grip on the wound tightened slightly, _damn, my stitches popped!_

"O-Onee-s-s-ama," Mai choked out, her face reddening from lack of oxygen

"L-let her go," Mikoto panted, she was trying to ignore the pain but it was next to impossible, her sight was tripleling and her breath was quickening into breathless pants, "I-I'm Mikoto Mi-Misaka!"

"And what if I said no?" Kakine asked, his fingers tightening around Mai's throat, electing a chocked gasp. Mikoto bit her lip and dug into her pocket, pulling out a coin she pointed it at Kakine, her sight blurring into shapeless blurs as she tried to see through the pain. "Are you serious? Only the Railgun can shoot a coin at a supersonic level and even if you were her, which is a really big 'if' by the way, you wouldn't have enough power to shoot it. The Railgun sustained heavy damage to her head and its said that her Esper power was severely damaged as a result." Mikoto looked at Mai, the electrical field surrounding her was unmistakable, and the almost too calm fuzz of her own electricity was her own way of nodding. Mikoto took a deep breath and steadied her arm, her eyes focusing on Kakine with a furious fire in her eyes.

"Well," Mikoto gasped, electricity sparked around her hand like sparklers, "You're not wrong."

 _KRA~ACK!_

Mikoto slumped in her wheelchair, Mai gasped as she was released, Kakine was nowhere to be found

…

* * *

…

" _Have you found her yet?_ " he rolled his eyes as he turned the corner, dark eyes searching the children's park

"If I found her, I wouldn't be calling you asking if you've found her," he retorted into his phone, "have you found out how Febri got out yet?"

" _Afraid not, do you have any thoughts?_ "

"Would I ask if I knew?" he retorted, "Check the internet again, maybe someone reported her as a lost child." He glanced around himself before heading for the gates of park, unware of the three girls listening closely. The girls shared a look before sending their long navy-haired friend to follow him as closely as she dared, the only one of the three who had a chance at following him without getting caught. The blonde and the tallest black haired girl both silently made their way a little further away in the opposite direction, the blonde's cell phone was out and on speaker.

"What do you hear anything, Awatsuki?" Wannai asked softly, holding her small blue phone close to her face, staring down at the screen anxiously

" _So far he keeps mentioning that little kid Kuroko introduced to us yesterday_ ," the voice of her friend whispered back, " _do you think he knows her?_ "

"if he did he would get in contact with judgment or Anti-skill," Mitsuko replied, scrolling through her phone list, "Not someone else. Besides the way he spoke about her is… not right."

" _not right_?" Awatsuki questioned, " _Not right how?_ "

"He asked the person he's talking to if they found her, then he suggested to check the lost and found file judgement update's every other hour," Mitsuko answered, slumping against the wall she was crouched against, "and there's something else… he spoke of Febri like she was an item, not a little girl."

"Should we alert anti-skill or judgment?" Wannai asked worriedly

"Why worry the whole precinct when you can inform the two judgement officers taking care of Febri?" Mitsuko asked as she showed her screen to Wannai, "I knew it was a good idea to get and keep their numbers."

…

* * *

…

He turned the corner and stopped, he knew it was too strange to hear a clap of thunder in the middle of a sunny day. Not even a dozen feet from him, was a wheel chair bound brunet, slumped over the side while a single clone leaned against her o the ground, blood dripping down her chalk-white face. Turning his eyes sky word he found himself watching another familiar brunet dance in the air with six snow-white wings helping him fly—no avoid _another_ familiar thing. Silently wondering if god hated him as he walked forward, he turned his eyes towards the surrounding buildings, each adorning several familiar looking clones. Almost all were either on the tops of the buildings, hiding in the allies, or stationed on balconies of the few restaurants on the street. It would seem that the worlds big best pest in his life decided to take on all remaining ten thousand level 1 and 2 Misaka clones, all connected through their little network and working together to use their 'big' sister's famed little coin (Railgun). It was admittedly interesting seeing the girls add power behind the little glowing coin (how has it not melted yet?) and move it through the air by merely adjusting the height of their hands.

"Y-you," he stopped just behind the wheel chair, glancing down he made eye contact with the clone that appeared to be half dead

"Should I be impressed that you've chosen a new toy to play with?" he drawled carelessly

"Mi… Misaka knows… you—"

"I did kill a few hundred of you," he rolled his eyes and moved past the 'twins' to enter the alleyway

"And her…" the clone gasped, "Soul mates … Mai knows this." He stopped dead in his tracks, crimson eyes narrowing into the darkness between the two buildings, wondering just what her 'big sister' would do when she found out he killed yet another of her 'little sisters'. "Yet… you turn away," the clone coughed, "Why? Are you not… supposed to aid her? Help her? …Heal her? …Can you… not feel her?" He didn't turn away from the alleyway, his right arm stiffened, brushing the too warm skin just above his right hip. It was a stupid question, all of them, of course the stupid mark would always point him towards her so he could help her. It even transmitted emotions from time to time, if they were close enough. Heck, some of his researched said that some soul mates could even share dreams, though admittedly, only when they both missed the other. As for the matter of healing her, he knew how to destroy the human body a hundred dozen different ways but destroying and creating are two very different things. It's easy to destroy, so easy some get a high off it (himself included), but creating takes more time and effort, requiring too much time. There was no way he could heal Mikoto even if he wanted to, he wasn't a regeneration type, he was a destroying type.

"Ax… Accelerator," the clone said softly just as he took a step forward, "your power… has… nine n-known s~sub c-categ-gories."

"And?" He asked dully, not expecting to hear an answer

"Bl-blood… ma… ma…" Mai feinted beside the wheel chair, her colorless skin giving way as a fraction of white dust filtered away from face, revealing blue lips and blood shot eyes. Accelerator glanced back at the clone, before moving into the alleyway and melting into its shadows, it would not be long before number two decided to challenge him again.

…

* * *

…

"My queen you have mail," she looked up and smiled at a familiar purple haired teen, who she deemed to be her favorite out of everyone who followed her around. "And no not the human kind," the girl winked and lifted a small brown box wrapped in brown paper and twine, "Did you order another useless item from on line again? There's no need for so much make up my queen, you're as beautiful now as you've always been." She snickered at the comment, refusing to answer back because of the food still in her mouth, instead she gave a playful glare and accepted the brown box carefully. He girl smiled back and walked away, tending to something pesky and annoying that she didn't need to be informed off. She untied the note and pushed the paper aside, seeing the tape on the box she carefully removed it with the knife she had previously used to cut into the ham still sitting on her table. Inside the box were many large bubbles, meant to keep a small bottle of what appeared to be black sand and a letter from moving around and making noise while on travel. Shrugging carelessly at the black sand, she set it aside and opened the letter curiously, it wasn't long before she was standing, her chair crashed to the ground and her glorified servants were asking her ridiculous questions about her state of health.

 _It's not possible!_ She thought, glaring down at the paper laying mockingly on the table top, _it can't be possible!_

"My lady?" her favorite asked softly, reaching out to press a comforting palm to her shoulder, she jerked away instead

"Find out who sent me this," she ordered as she grabbed the letter and bottle of black sand. "Dust it for finger prints, follow the address, anything and everything you can about it. I want to know who sent it!" the word 'now' was echoed harshly in everyone's mind, she hadn't meant to use telepathy on them but it seemed to wake everyone from their stupor. She marched away imagining the earth was cracking and shattering beneath her every step, that the flowers she passed burst into fire before turning to ash, that the sky filled with lightning and thunder; it was a good description of how she felt.

 _How dare they,_ she snarled as she exited the beautiful garden of her campus, her hand tightened around the plastic jar of black sand, her cloves tightening and threatening to burst from the strain. _How dare they insult me!_

…

* * *

…

She hurried down the alleyway, skidding to turn and slamming into stone walls while she was at it. Number 10032 has lost consciousness, none of them were any longer sure of big sister's safety, so it was up to her to get Mikoto to a safer location. Skidding around another corner, she stumbled to a stop, leaning against the wall farthest from her was a familiar white haired boy. His arms were crossed and his head bowed slightly with closed eyes, looking as if he were a sleep, for the first time she wondered if she should attack or flee. which was more important, fighting because he's a threat or retreating with Mikoto?

"How long are you going to stare at me?" he asked, opening one eye to look at her, "hurry up and bring Mikoto here." She blinked, fingers flexing around the riffle in her hand, "hurry up, I won't stay here all day. Belief it or not I do have a life that doesn't involve killing you little puppets."

"Mai is not a puppet," she replied courtly lowering her gun and walking forward, "Mai understands why you agree to healing big sister."

"Mention it to anyone and I'll kill you," he drawled calmly as she walked past, "you'd better bring out little one eye while you're at it."

"'Careful Accelerator, you sound as if you care' Mai say's as sarcastically as she can,"

 _Stupid brat,_ he glared and looked down at his IPad once more, staring at the hypnotizing numbers rolling past the screen. Hundreds of numbers flashed across the screen, the binary web was just zeros and ones. The binary web was literally the code of the internet, layers and layers of zeros and ones that made up the seemingly endless space called 'internet'. Granted the only ones who could read the binary-web were Electro-masters, who did it subconsciously, and those like himself, vector manipulation was truly at its toughest when trying to read something in binary form. It was a great brain-game and kept him on his toes, nothing killed time like hacking into a high class facility, messing up files and watching the scientists freak out over all the confusion. However, he wasn't hacking at the moment; right now he was just searching and memorizing everything he could on how regenerators healed wounds, primarily those who succeeded in healing broken bones—which was apparently a level four difficulty.

"'Are you ready?' Mai asks distrusting,'" he sighed and put his IPad away before pushing off the wall and moving to the center of the intersection

"Lay her down here," Accelerator drawled, stopping in the center, one eye open to look at the small group of clones. One behind the wheel chair, two carrying the knocked out clone, one armed and ready to distract, and one watching the gray sky high over high. Five clones in total, plus one knocked out, that makes six clones if he was going to be accurate. Three of the clones looked at each other before taking off their gray uniform vests and laid them on the ground, a raised eyebrow at them earned him nothing but a bland look. His silent question was answered when two of them lifted Mikoto out of her chair and gently laid her on the ground, making sure her head was centered on the piled vests. Rolling his eyes he sitting down beside Mikoto carefully, lifting her head to rest on his right arm before untucking her shirt and revealing her mark, only to repeat the action with his own shirt.

"Guard the alleys, don't let anyone pass," Accelerator ordered, lining up the marks before laying down and closing his eyes, "Even her friends, no one can know I'm helping her." His own body was constantly healing because it was quite literally on over drive almost continually, he had to constantly keep it suppressed in order to not, well, put his body in over drive. If he could take some of that over-driven healing power and use the mark on his hip as a medium to transfer it over to Mikoto's mark, he could then help her recover that much faster. The only problem was that he would be weak until the healing was complete; he wouldn't even be conscious, just in that annoying state of not asleep but defiantly not awake. Unconscious but aware… technically he would be consciously aware of his body but not of anything approaching or intending harm to his person. That was the reason he ordered the clones to the alleys, with luck they'll be able to protect him in his weakened state, even if it was just to protect their precious big sister.

Hopefully no one would start looking for them until after his little experiment was over

…

* * *

…

It was dark, unbelievably dark, how could a place be filled with so much darkness that it held a strange light that spoke of an endless emptiness clear of any obstacles. He took a deep breath and found the scent of smoke, oxygen-less air, liquid metals, sulfur, and yet acuminating it all as if it was perfectly normal to be there, was the scent of rain.

It gave off the impression that he was standing in a sulfur field during a level five lightning storm

What a strange thing to notice while waking up in someone else's mind could this be considered an unhealthy mind? None of it really fit the girl he read about, and what little of her wrath that he experienced wasn't anything like this inhospitable environment. The information he got from the personal files he hacked into said that she was kind, respectful, smart (the smartest in her year) and had a tendency to be blunt with her words, though it was known that she was far from detached because of her short temper and spontaneous reactions to certain events.

So then, why was the world of inside Mikoto Misaka's mind so depressing?

He opened his eyes, deciding it was time to start searching for the spirit that was unique to Mikoto's subconscious. Instead he found that the darkness he had first seen was riddled with teal specks high overhead, as if he was staring at millions of stars trying to out glow their neighbor. A current picked up, pushing at the millions of glowing specks into lining the current, creating beautiful sweeps of teal light. He looked a little closer to himself, double checking his appearance in this strange surreal world, and found that his entire body was outlined in white light, just barely the outline of his body and cloths, not even the color of them just the general shape. Rolling his eyes, he moved forward, watching how each step lit up more glowing dots like fireflies bursting into existence for the first time. It appeared that he walk on and on forever, his feet seemingly knowing where to go in this endless expanse of darkness contrasted with glowing dust. Beginning to grow tiered of the darkness and dancing glowing dust particles, he stopped dead in his tracks and growled in the back of his throat; with a bright gleam across its surface a large pane of glass appeared before him as if trying to calm his growing irritation.

"Mikoto Misaka, let me heal you," he ordered, staring dully at the clear black glass with only the light gray gleam across its surface as the only indication of its size. The shine on the glass shifted across the surface in a sharp quick motion, when the shine receded he found himself staring in surprise at what stood within the now revealed mirror. Mikoto stood calmly, head bowed as if in shame, one tear slowly rolled mockingly down her cheek, her shoulders were slumped, her back hunched, her knees quivered as if they couldn't hold the weight of her body and her uniform seemed unusually rumbled, as if she slept in it.

"Let me heal your wounds," he said softer, less demanding. She sniffed and raised one shaky hand, slowly pressing it against the icy coldness of the glass, fingers curled as if it hurt to out stretch her fingers against the glass. The image she made, made it appear as if she was stuck behind that too cold pane, trapped within its two dimensions like a paper doll. Doomed to watch the world move on without her for eternity. He blinked slowly, staring dully at the palm of her hand like it was a child's drawing of a turkey, before realizing what was needed and just as slowly raised his hand and pressed it against the black glass where she was trapped.

The glass shattered into a thousand pieces and she collapsed against him, sending the both of them crashing to the ground

…

* * *

…

She woke up to the feel of satin and warmth, bright glowing light blinded her for but a moment, then she was staring into a familiar pale ceiling with yellow curtains rounding her vision. The smell of bleach and sterile air told her where exactly she was. She licked her dry lips and pushed herself up with her right arm carefully, waiting for the shooting pain of her side to appear like a bulldozer. Instead, her side felt a little tender and sore, as if she did too many sit-ups. Curious, she sat up as high as she dared and carefully removed the blankets from her body and untied the hospital gown she wore, revealing her still bandaged side. She frown slightly at the bandage, she knew she popped some stitches, she knew she was bleeding out, she knew that they wrapped her waste in thick, highly absorbent gauze. The bandage on her waste was little more then a thick pad edged in water resistant-medical tape, it would have to be cut to be removed and it would still hurt. There didn't appear to be a drop of blood in the bandage, so then she must've popped only one stich, which meant she wasn't bleeding out as heavily as she thought. She swallowed the thick lump gathering in her throat, before reaching towards the edge of the pristine white tape. Just as she placed her fingers on the edge and tried to put her nail beneath the edge to lift the corner of the bandage up, long pale fingers wrapped around her wrist. She blinked dumbly at them before looking up at the owner of the pale hand wrapped around her wrist, sleepy crimson eyes glared up at through a mop of pure white curls.

"I didn't heal you so you could undo it all," the boy growled low, pushing himself up so he wasn't laying against the edge of her bed. She immanently noticed that his other hand was holding her left and that was why she couldn't use it to push herself up. Noticing her stare, he moved her right hand to her lap and let go, stubbornly holding her left.

"Who are you?" Mikoto whispered, watching the city lights reflect off the walls, making his white hair appear to glow in the dim light of the room. Her eyes widened slightly as she watched his whole body flinch at her question. He hesitated in answering her, something she normally would've shocked the hell out of someone else for, but found herself surprising patient with this strange crimson eyed boy.

"Don't worry about it," the boy answered, not looking at her. She frowned and tightened her hold on his his hand, forcing him to look at her.

"I don't take 'no' well," Mikoto told him, "I asked for your name, why won't you tell me?"

"Because clearly it isn't important enough for you to remember it," he replied tartly, jerking his hand out of hers and sliding to his feet silently.

"Then I'll give you one, since your so damn stubborn," Mikoto hissed at him, wanting to electrocute him but somehow knowing it wouldn't do any good against him. He snorted, rolling his eyes as he walked towards the open window, not caring that she was staring at his back. Just as he reached the windowsill and leaned against it with his arms crossed, Mikoto saw his distorted, not-quite-there reflection in the glass beside him. To her, the distortion of city lights, his too pale hair and the ripple design of his shirt made it appear as if there were translucent wings on his back. An idea came to her and she couldn't hide her triumphant, smug grin.

"Tenshi," Mikoto said suddenly, watching the pale haired boy turn towards her in disbelief, "Since your not going to tell me your actual name, I'm going to call you Tenshi." For a moment, he just stared at her, feeling his heart beat skip as suddenly Mikoto's image was over lapped with the hazy memory of a girl he thought he forgot. Unbeknownst to him, Mikoto had a similar problem, a memory from long ago washed over her and for a second she thought she was living it again.

Then her world was dark and she was surrounded in pain

…

* * *

…

She found herself staring passively up at the two biggest pains in her entire life; their mere existence seemed to be a curse and a blessing. A curse because it was painful to use and a blessing because it was the only reason she was even considered a level five in the first place, though she did see it as cheating. As usual the building was empty of all life, except for her. Every now and again, she examined the two house sized brains, she normaly just glances at their front and deems them untouched. However, she needed to examine their back side, something she hasn't done since she first saw them. So she did what she normally doesn't do, she walked around the edge of the large space between her and them; she tried almost desperately to keep her eyes on them, feeling that if she looked away she'd miss something vital. She took several deep breaths as she walked, steadying her steps to counter the erratic beating of her heart. She stopped once; her amber eyes with the permanently stationed three golden stars in her irises widened, then she hurried to the farthest reaches of the too large room; examining the backs of the brains with wide horrified eyes.

"No," she whispered hitting her knees as she stared at the carved marks on the two brains, "it can't be… no… no way…" her reality was beginning to crack, fraying at the edges as she continued to stare at the marks she swore weren't there when she first saw them. However, when she first saw them, they were still miniaturized versions of her own brain, so the discoloration she was staring at now was easily over looked by her childish disgust.

"It can't be…" she trailed off as slow realization crept over her, filling her slowly as she stared at the almost familiar looking design on the back of the two brains, hidden from immediate sight. Her hold on the small plastic bottle loosened and the trapped black dust forced the container towards the nearest brain, rattling against the thick glass in irritation. She watched numbly as the black dust rolled and twirled around in the bottle, making her look down at the image that came with bottle and the letter. It was a night shot from straight over head, the person in the center cloud of swirling black sand was completely obscured, leaving only the male a few feet away to be seen clearly in the darkness of the river side bank.

 _You're not who think you are, your ability was stolen from another_

 _You should look a little closer into "your" ability and see the truth for who you really are_

 _A fake_

She remembered once when she was still young, just after losing her first and only friend, she was ordered to try and take control of an eletromaster, a young girl named Mikoto Misaka. She didn't think anything about it, the brunet was dressed no different than any of the other kid's she was to work with (take control of), so she focused on the girl. The effect was almost immediate, the girl snapped around and sent a bolt of electricity strait at her. After dodging with a scream, she found the brunet hovering over her encased completely in electricity, looking like a demon of lightning. The scientist with her quickly explained what was going on and the girl backed down, walking away as she ordered her to never do it again. In response she did it again, trying to take control of the brunet with every ounce of power she had, the result was a massive headache and a trip to the emergency word for electrocution.

That was how they first met and neither one of them could stand the other ever since, she had tried several times since then to take control of Mikoto but it always back fired with a migraine for both parties. She could feel ice settle into her belly, her vision doubling as she remembered several other incidents between her and the electro-master, remembering the various fights and headaches they both suffered from. She turned her eyes back up to the giant brains, tears threatened her vision as she realized just how true the letter was. She was not a master of the 'Mental Out' ability, she was a fabricated Esper, an experiment created to use against the one person she can't control.

Amusing how she was created to control the one girl she was useless against

…

* * *

…

 **My grandpa just died, I'm swamped and stressed and I'm sorry for the late update**

 **I properly won't be updating again for quite a while… sorry guys**

 **Thoughts are helpful**

 **Opinions are wonderful**

 **Helpful criticism is lovely! Just don't cripple me okay?**

 **Please no cursing!**

 **And don't forget to rate and review!**

 **Page 10**


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